Environmental sensing with wireless communication devices

ABSTRACT

A method of using one or more radio-frequency signals includes: monitoring, with at least one radio-frequency (RF) receiver, one or more RF characteristics of one or more wireless RF signals from one or more RF devices in an environment; comparing the one or more RF characteristics to a reference RF profile for the environment; and initiating an action based on a difference between the one or more RF characteristics and the reference RF profile determined by the comparing.

BACKGROUND

Devices, both mobile and static, are increasingly equipped to wirelesslycommunicate with other devices and/or to take measurements from whichtheir locations may be determined and/or locations may be determined ofother devices from which one or more signals are received. Locations ofdevices may be determined by the devices themselves, or by anotherdevice that is provided with the measurements, or by another device thattakes the measurements. For example, a device may determine its ownlocation based on satellite positioning system (SPS) signals, cellularnetwork signals, and/or Wi-Fi signals, etc. that the devices receive.Also or alternatively, the location of a target device may be determinedby another to which measurements taken by the target device areprovided. Also or alternatively, the location of the target device maybe determined by location-determining device based on measurements ofsignals sent by the target device (received by the location-determiningdevice and/or received by one or more other devices). The types ofdevices that are capable of wirelessly communicating continue to expand,for example with household items such as garage door openers oftencapable of wirelessly communicating with other devices.

SUMMARY

An example of a method of using one or more radio-frequency signalsincludes: monitoring, with at least one radio-frequency (RF) receiver,one or more RF characteristics of one or more wireless RF signals fromone or more RF devices in an environment; comparing the one or more RFcharacteristics to a reference RF profile for the environment; andinitiating an action based on a difference between the one or more RFcharacteristics and the reference RF profile determined by thecomparing.

Implementations of such a method may include one or more of thefollowing features. The method further includes determining that acontext of the one or more RF characteristics corresponds to a contextof the reference RF profile, wherein comparing the one or more RFcharacteristics to the reference RF profile is performed in response todetermining that the context of the one or more RF characteristicscorresponds to the context of the reference RF profile. Determining thecontext of the one or more RF characteristics includes determining oneor more of a time of day, a day of the week, a location, a useractivity, or presence of a user. The method further includes: providingan indication of the context of the reference RF profile to a user of areceiving wireless communication device that includes the at least oneRF receiver; or taking a user-defined action based on the context of thereference RF profile; or a combination of these.

Also or alternatively, implementations of such a method may include oneor more of the following features. The one or more RF characteristicsand the reference RF profile have a shared RF characteristic set thatincludes at least one signal characteristic, or at least one signalpropagation characteristic, or a combination thereof. Initiating theaction occurs in response to the difference determined by the comparingbeing more than a threshold amount. The action includes requesting aneighbor wireless communication device to determine a confirmation RFprofile of one or more of the one or more RF characteristics of one ormore of the one or more RF devices, the neighbor wireless communicationdevice being within communication range of the at least one RF receiver.The method further includes maintaining the reference RF profile byupdating the reference RF profile using one or more values of the one ormore RF characteristics.

An example of a wireless mobile communication device includes: a memory;a transceiver; and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory andto the transceiver and configured to: monitor, via at least oneradio-frequency (RF) receiver of the transceiver, one or more RFcharacteristics of one or more wireless RF signals from one or more RFdevices in an environment; compare the one or more RF characteristics toa reference RF profile for the environment; and initiate an action basedon a difference between the one or more RF characteristics and thereference RF profile.

Implementations of such a device may include one or more of thefollowing features. The processor is further configured to determinethat a context of the one or more RF characteristics corresponds to acontext of the reference RF profile, and the processor is configured tocompare the one or more RF characteristics to the reference RF profilein response to determining that the context of the one or more RFcharacteristics corresponds to the context of the reference RF profile.To determine the context of the one or more RF characteristics theprocessor is configured to determine one or more of a time of day, a dayof the week, a location, a user activity, or presence of a user. Theprocessor is further configured to: provide an indication of the contextof the reference RF profile to a user of the wireless mobilecommunication device; or take a user-defined action based on the contextof the reference RF profile; or a combination of these.

Also or alternatively, implementations of such a device may include oneor more of the following features. The processor is configured to selectthe reference RF profile for comparison to the one or more RFcharacteristics such that the one or more RF characteristics and thereference RF profile have a shared RF characteristic set that includesat least one signal characteristic, or at least one signal propagationcharacteristic, or a combination thereof. The processor is configured toinitiate the action in response to the difference between the one ormore RF characteristics and the reference RF profile being more than athreshold amount. The action includes requesting a neighbor wirelesscommunication device to determine a confirmation RF profile of one ormore of the one or more RF characteristics of one or more of the one ormore RF devices. The processor is further configured to maintain thereference RF profile by updating the reference RF profile using one ormore values of the one or more RF characteristics.

Another example of a wireless mobile communication device includes:means for monitoring one or more radio-frequency (RF) characteristics ofone or more wireless RF signals from one or more RF devices in anenvironment; means for comparing the one or more RF characteristics to areference RF profile for the environment; and means for initiating anaction based on a difference between the one or more RF characteristicsand the reference RF profile determined by the comparing.

Implementations of such a device may include one or more of thefollowing features. The device further includes means for determiningthat a context of the one or more RF characteristics corresponds to acontext of the reference RF profile, wherein the means for comparing areconfigured to compare the one or more RF characteristics to thereference RF profile in response to the means for determining that thecontext of the one or more RF characteristics corresponds to the contextof the reference RF profile. The means for determining the context ofthe one or more RF characteristics are configured to determine one ormore of a time of day, a day of the week, a location, a user activity,or presence of a user. The device further includes: means for providingan indication of the context of the reference RF profile to a user ofthe wireless mobile communication device; or means for taking auser-defined action based on the context of the reference RF profile; ora combination of these.

Also or alternatively, implementations of such a device may include oneor more of the following features. The device further includes means forselecting the reference RF profile for comparison to the one or more RFcharacteristics such that the one or more RF characteristics and thereference RF profile have a shared RF characteristic set that includesat least one signal characteristic, or at least one signal propagationcharacteristic, or a combination thereof. The means for initiating areconfigured to initiate the action occurs in response to the differencedetermined by the comparing being more than a threshold amount. Themeans for initiating the action are configured to request a neighborwireless communication device to determine a confirmation RF profile ofone or more of the one or more RF characteristics of one or more of theone or more RF devices. The device further includes means formaintaining the reference RF profile by updating the reference RFprofile using one or more values of the one or more RF characteristics.

An example of a non-transitory, processor-readable storage mediumincludes instructions configured to cause a processor to: monitor, viaat least one radio-frequency (RF) receiver, one or more RFcharacteristics of one or more wireless RF signals from one or more RFdevices in an environment; compare the one or more RF characteristics toa reference RF profile for the environment; and initiate an action basedon a difference between the one or more RF characteristics and thereference RF profile.

Implementations of such a storage medium may include one or more of thefollowing features. The storage medium further includes instructionsconfigured to cause the processor to determine that a context of the oneor more RF characteristics corresponds to a context of the reference RFprofile, wherein the instructions configured to cause the processor tocompare the one or more RF characteristics to the reference RF profileare configured to cause the processor to compare the one or more RFcharacteristics to the reference RF profile in response to the processordetermining that the context of the one or more RF characteristicscorresponds to the context of the reference RF profile. The instructionsconfigured to cause the processor to determine the context of the one ormore RF characteristics are configured to cause the processor todetermine one or more of a time of day, a day of the week, a location, auser activity, or presence of a user. The storage medium furtherincludes instructions configured to cause the processor to: provide anindication of the context of the reference RF profile to a user of thewireless mobile communication device; or take a user-defined actionbased on the context of the reference RF profile; or a combination ofthese.

Also or alternatively, implementations of such a storage medium mayinclude one or more of the following features. The storage mediumfurther includes instructions configured to cause the processor toselect the reference RF profile for comparison to the one or more RFcharacteristics such that the one or more RF characteristics and thereference RF profile have a shared RF characteristic set that includesat least one signal characteristic, or at least one signal propagationcharacteristic, or a combination thereof. The instructions configured tocause the processor to initiate the action are configured to cause theprocessor to initiate the action in response to the difference betweenthe one or more RF characteristics and the reference RF profile beingmore than a threshold amount. The action includes requesting a neighborwireless communication device to determine a confirmation RF profile ofone or more of the one or more RF characteristics of one or more of theone or more RF devices. The storage medium further includes instructionsconfigured to cause the processor to maintain the reference RF profileby updating the reference RF profile using one or more values of the oneor more RF characteristics.

An example of a method of generating a radio-frequency signal profileincludes: receiving indications of measurements of one or more values ofone or more radio-frequency (RF) characteristics of one or more wirelessRF signals from one or more RF devices in an environment; determiningcontexts from values of one or more context characteristics associatedwith the measurements; and generating a reference RF profile bycombining sets of the one or more values of the one or more RFcharacteristics associated with similar contexts.

Implementations of such a method may include one or more of thefollowing features. The method further includes maintaining thereference RF profile by updating the reference RF profile using one ormore present values of the one or more RF characteristics. Updating thereference RF profile is performed in response to: the one or more of thepresent values of the one or more RF characteristics differing from thereference RF profile by more than a threshold for more than a specifiedtime; at least one of the RF devices moving more than a respectivethreshold distance; a present context corresponding to present values ofthe context characteristics being less than a threshold likeliness ofbeing a previously-determined context; or a present RF profile,corresponding to the one or more present values of the RFcharacteristics, differing by more than a first threshold amount fromthe reference RF profile and less than a second threshold amount from apreviously-determined present RF profile that also differed from thereference RF profile by more than the first threshold amount; or acombination of two or more of these. The context characteristics includeone or more of a time of day, a day of the week, a location, a useractivity, or presence of a user. The method further includes sending,using a short-range wireless communication technique, the one or morevalues of the one or more RF characteristics, one or more values of oneor more RF characteristics of the reference RF profile, or a combinationof these, directly between wireless communication devices eachconfigured to determine the one or more values of the one or more RFcharacteristics. Receiving the indications of the measurement includestaking the measurements with at least one radio-frequency (RF) receiver.

An example of a device includes: a memory; a processor, communicativelycoupled to the memory, configured to: receive indications ofmeasurements of one or more values of one or more wirelessradio-frequency (RF) characteristics of one or more wireless RF signalsfrom one or more RF devices in an environment; determine contexts fromvalues of one or more context characteristics associated with themeasurements; and generate a reference RF profile by combining sets ofthe one or more values of the one or more RF characteristics associatedwith similar contexts.

Implementations of such a device may include one or more of thefollowing features. The processor is further configured to maintain thereference RF profile by updating the reference RF profile using one ormore new values of the one or more RF characteristics. The processor isconfigured to update the reference RF profile in response to: the one ormore of the new values of the one or more RF characteristics differingfrom the reference RF profile by more than a threshold for more than aspecified time; at least one of the RF devices moving more than arespective threshold distance; a new context corresponding to new valuesof the context characteristics being less than a threshold likeliness ofbeing a previously-determined context; or a new RF profile,corresponding to the one or more new values of the RF characteristics,differing by more than a first threshold amount from the reference RFprofile and less than a second threshold amount from apreviously-determined present RF profile that also differed from thereference RF profile by more than the first threshold amount; or acombination of two or more of these. The context characteristics includeone or more of a time of day, a day of the week, a location, a useractivity, or presence of a user. The device further includes atransmitter communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein theprocessor is further configured to send, via the transmitter using ashort-range wireless communication technique, the one or more values ofthe one or more RF characteristics, one or more values of one or more RFcharacteristics of the reference RF profile, or a combination of these,directly to a wireless communication device. The device further includesat least one RF receiver communicatively coupled to the processor,wherein the processor is configured to receive the indications of themeasurements via the at least one RF receiver.

Another example of a device includes: means for receiving indications ofmeasurements of one or more values of one or more radio-frequency (RF)characteristics of one or more wireless RF signals from one or more RFdevices in an environment; means for determining contexts from values ofone or more context characteristics associated with the measurements;and means for generating a reference RF profile by combining sets of theone or more values of the one or more RF characteristics associated withsimilar contexts.

Implementations of such a device may include one or more of thefollowing features. The device further includes means for maintainingthe reference RF profile by updating the reference RF profile using oneor more present values of the one or more RF characteristics. The meansfor updating the reference RF profile are configured to update thereference RF profile in response to: the one or more of the presentvalues of the one or more RF characteristics differing from thereference RF profile by more than a threshold for more than a specifiedtime; at least one of the RF devices moving more than a respectivethreshold distance; a present context corresponding to present values ofthe context characteristics being less than a threshold likeliness ofbeing a previously-determined context; or a present RF profile,corresponding to the one or more present values of the RFcharacteristics, differing by more than a first threshold amount fromthe reference RF profile and less than a second threshold amount from apreviously-determined present RF profile that also differed from thereference RF profile by more than the first threshold amount; or acombination of two or more of these. The context characteristics includeone or more of a time of day, a day of the week, a location, a useractivity, or presence of a user. The further includes means for sending,using a short-range wireless communication technique, the one or morevalues of the one or more RF characteristics, one or more values of oneor more RF characteristics of the reference RF profile, or a combinationof these, directly to a wireless communication device. The means forreceiving the indications of the measurement comprise means for takingthe measurements with at least one radio-frequency (RF) receiver.

Another example of a non-transitory, processor-readable storage mediumincludes instructions configured to cause a processor to: receiveindications of measurements of one or more values of one or moreradio-frequency (RF) characteristics of one or more wireless RF signalsfrom one or more RF devices in an environment; determine contexts fromvalues of one or more context characteristics associated with themeasurements; and generate a reference RF profile by combining sets ofthe one or more values of the one or more RF characteristics associatedwith similar contexts.

Implementations of such a storage medium may include one or more of thefollowing features. The storage medium further includes instructionsconfigured to cause the processor to maintain the reference RF profileby updating the reference RF profile using one or more new values of theone or more RF characteristics. The instructions configured to cause theprocessor to update the reference RF profile are configured to cause theprocessor to update the reference RF profile in response to: the one ormore of the new values of the one or more RF characteristics differingfrom the reference RF profile by more than a threshold for more than aspecified time; at least one of the RF devices moving more than arespective threshold distance; a new context corresponding to new valuesof the context characteristics being less than a threshold likeliness ofbeing a previously-determined context; or a new RF profile,corresponding to the one or more new values of the RF characteristics,differing by more than a first threshold amount from the reference RFprofile and less than a second threshold amount from apreviously-determined present RF profile that also differed from thereference RF profile by more than the first threshold amount; or acombination of two or more of these. The context characteristics includeone or more of a time of day, a day of the week, a location, a useractivity, or presence of a user. The storage medium further includesinstructions configured to cause the processor to send, via atransmitter using a short-range wireless communication technique, theone or more values of the one or more RF characteristics, one or morevalues of one or more RF characteristics of the reference RF profile, ora combination of these, directly to a wireless communication device. Theinstructions configured to cause the processor to receive theindications of the measurements are configured to cause the processor toreceive the indications of the measurements via at least one RFreceiver.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified view of a wireless communication system.

FIG. 2 is a simplified top view of an indoor portion of the wirelesscommunication system shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of components of communication device shown inFIG. 2.

FIGS. 4-5 are examples of tables of device attributes corresponding oneor more wireless communication devices.

FIGS. 6-7 are example profile tables of characteristic values of anenvironment.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of components of a central controller shown inFIG. 2.

FIG. 9 is a block flow diagram of a method of analyzing characteristicvalues corresponding to radio-frequency signals.

FIG. 10 is a block flow diagram of another method of analyzingcharacteristic values corresponding to radio-frequency signals.

FIG. 11 is a block flow diagram of a method of using one or moreradio-frequency signals.

FIG. 12 is a block flow diagram of a method of generating aradio-frequency signal profile.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Techniques are also discussed herein for communicating device attributesbetween devices in wireless communication networks. For example, adevice may broadcast attributes of itself such as the type of devicethat it is (e.g., a mobile phone, a television, a refrigerator, etc.),the name of the device, whether the device is static (at leastexpectedly) or mobile (at least expectedly), the position of the device,etc. The device may provide one or more privacy indications associatedwith one or more respective attributes. A privacy indication mayindicate, for example, whether a device receiving the broadcast of theattributes is permitted to forward or otherwise send or retransmit anindication of the attribute. As another example, a privacy indicationmay indicate whether a device is discoverable, e.g., whether a locationof the device is allowed to be reported, or whether one or more otherdevices are authorized to determine the location of the device. Forexample, a device may not include a location of the device in a networktable of device, locations, and attributes. Further, a first device mayrequire authorization of a second device before the first device willprovide a location of the first device. The authorization may beobtained by an exchange of security questions. Alternatively, the firstdevice may provide the location of the first device in an encryptedmessage that the second device can only properly decrypt if the seconddevice has an appropriate (authorized) cryptographic key. Alternativelystill, if the authorization is unknown/unidentifiable, then the firstdevice may use spoofing to obstruct knowledge of the location of thefirst device. The spoofing may be to add error to the first device'slocation, e.g., by adding error to a timing signal transmitted by thefirst device, by adjusting a power level of a transmitted signal toalter a proximity determination, and/or by reporting an inaccuratelocation (e.g., a truthful location plus an error, e.g., of 100 m). Asstill another example, what attributes of a device are included in a setof attributes and/or what attributes (or attribute values) aretransmitted by the device may vary, e.g., based on location of thedevice, or day of week, or time of day, or combinations of these and/orone or more other criteria. These examples, however, are not exhaustive.

Techniques are also discussed herein for determining and usingenvironmental characteristics. For example, wireless radio-frequencysignals and/or other forms of information (e.g., sound, device statusindications, light, temperature, etc.) may be used to determine anenvironmental profile indicative of an environment including a wirelesscommunication device. The environmental profile may provide an RFsignature for the environment. Different environmental profiles may bedetermined for different contexts such as one or more of time of day,day of week, user(s) present, activity of user(s) present, etc.Reference profiles may be stored for comparison with future profiles todetermine whether a present environmental state corresponds to thestored environmental state. If the stored and present environmentalstates significantly differ, e.g., for the same or similar context, thenone or more appropriate actions may be taken. Further, the referenceprofiles may be re-learned, e.g., in response to passage of time and/orin response to occurrence of one or more events, such as a profile withthe same context becoming static for longer than a threshold time and/ora measured profile not matching any stored profile. Further, devices maycommunicate with each other, e.g., directly, to share information forproducing reference profiles, confirming changes in environment, etc.

Items and/or techniques described herein may provide one or more of thefollowing capabilities, as well as other capabilities not mentioned.Changes in environments may be determined and appropriate actions taken.Multiple different environments for the same location may be determinedand used to determine whether present conditions are within expectationsfor the appropriate environment. Expected environments may be manuallyset. Other capabilities may be provided and not every implementationaccording to the disclosure must provide any, let alone all, of thecapabilities discussed.

Referring to FIG. 1, a wireless communication system 10 includeswireless communication devices 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, an access point24, a base station 26, a network 28, a server 30, a presence sensor 32,and an audio transducer 34. The devices 12, 14, 16, 18, the access point24, the presence sensor 32, and the audio transducer 34 are disposedinside a structure 36 (e.g., a building). The system 10 is acommunication system in that components of the system 10 can communicatewith one another directly or indirectly, e.g., via the network 28 and/orthe access point 24 and/or the base station 26 (or other access pointsand/or other bases stations not shown). The system 10 is a wirelesscommunication system in that at least some of the components of thesystem 10 can communicate with one another wirelessly. For example, thebase station 26 and the device 20 may communicate wirelessly usingsignals according to one or more protocols such as LTE, GSM, CDMA, orOFDM. The single access point 24 and the single base station 26 areexamples only, and other quantities of access points and/or basestations may be used. Also, the types of the devices 12, 14, 16, 18, 20,22 (e.g., an appliance, a smart phone, a tablet computer, a laptopcomputer, and a car) are examples and other types of devices may beused, whether currently existing or developed in the future. The term“base station” does not limit the base station 26 to any particularform, protocol, etc. For example, any of the base station 26 (and/orother base stations not shown) may be referred to as a base transceiverstation (BTS), an access node (AN), a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNB),etc. Further, the device 22 is a car and while the primary function of acar is not as a communication device, the car will comprise acommunication device as a part of the car, and for simplicity of thedisclosure the car is considered as one type of communication deviceherein.

The system 10 comprises an Internet of Things (IoT) network in thisexample, with the devices 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 configured tocommunicate with each other, particularly through one or moreshort-range wireless communication techniques. The system 10 being anIoT network is, however, an example and not required. Examples ofshort-range wireless communication techniques include BLUETOOTHcommunications, BLUETOOTH Low-Energy communications, and Wi-Ficommunications. The devices 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 may broadcastinformation, and/or may relay information from one of the devices 12,14, 16, 18, 20, 22 to another or to another device such as the accesspoint 24 and/or the base station 26. One or more of the devices 12, 14,16, 18, 20, 22 may include multiple types of radios, e.g., a BLUETOOTHradio, a Wi-Fi radio, a cellular radio (e.g., LTE, CDMA, 3G, 4G, etc.),etc. such that information may be received using one radio andtransmitted using a different radio. Further, one or more of the devices12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 may be configured to determine range to anotherof the devices 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 (e.g., using round-trip time(RTT), or observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA), or receivedsignal strength indications (RSSI), or one or more other techniques, ora combination of one or more of any of these techniques) and/or todetermine angle of arrival (AOA) of a signal from another of the devices12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 and/or from one or more other devices such as theaccess point 24 and/or the base station 26.

Referring to FIG. 2, and indoor portion of the system 10 inside of thestructure 36 includes wireless communication devices 40, 41, 42, 43, 44,45, 46, 47, 48 presence sensors 50, 52, audio transducers 54, 56, acentral controller 60, and the access point 24 (here a Wi-Fi router). Inthis example, the wireless communication devices 40-48 include adishwasher 40, an oven 41, a toaster 42, and a refrigerator 43 disposedin a kitchen 64, a tablet 44, a smart phone 45, and a television 48disposed in a family room 66, and a car 46 and a garage door opener 47disposed in a garage 68. These devices 40-48 are configured tocommunicate with each other if within communication range of each other,and to communicate with the presence sensors 50, 52 and the centralcontroller 60. Using the communication capabilities between each other,information regarding the devices 40-48 may be sent to each other,relayed to other devices, or even relayed to the central controller 60.Further, communications from the central controller 60 may be receivedby, or forwarded by, the devices 40-48. Further still, the centralcontroller 60 may be a standalone device as shown in FIG. 2 or may beincorporated into any of the devices 40-48. The system 10, in thisexample, provides an IoT network that can generate, send, receive, relayor forward, various information (e.g., attributes, attribute tables,information relating to attributes, signal measurements, locationindications, etc.) to facilitate functionality described herein. Thedevices 40-48 are examples only, and other types of devices, as well asother quantities of devices, may be used.

The presence sensors 50, 52 facilitate detection of the presence ofdevices and/or users. The presence sensors 50, 52 may detect thepresence of devices and/or persons in any of a variety of ways. Forexample, either or both of the presence sensors 50, 52 may comprise amovement sensor, e.g., that sends signals, measures their reflections,and compares present reflections with previous reflections. The signalsmay be visible or non-visible (e.g., infrared) light signals and audibleor non-audible (e.g., ultrasound) sound signals. Either or both of thepresence sensors 50, 52 may comprise a heat sensor, e.g., including aninfrared sensor. Either or both of the presence sensors 50, 52 may becommunicatively coupled (e.g., hard-wired or wirelessly in communicationwith) one or more of the devices 40-48 and/or the central controller 60.The presence sensors 50, 52 are configured to report the detection ofpresence (possibly only if new, or possibly new and ongoing) of arelevant object such as a person.

The audio transducers 54, 56 facilitate the reception and provision ofcommands from users to the central controller 60 or other appropriatedevice. The audio transducers are preferably communicatively coupled(e.g., hard-wired or in wireless communication with) the centralcontroller 60 and are configured to receive verbal commands, convertthese commands to electrical signals, and send the signals to thecentral controller 60 or other appropriate device. The audio transducers54, 56 may send the signals to the central controller 60 or otherappropriate device directly or indirectly (e.g., through one or moreintermediate devices that relay the signals) such as one or more of thedevices 40-48.

Referring to FIG. 3, with further reference to FIG. 1, an examplewireless communication device 70 comprises a computer system including aprocessor 80, a memory 82 including software (SW) 84, an optional userinterface 86, a transceiver 88, and one or more sensors 96. Theprocessor 80 is preferably an intelligent hardware device, for example acentral processing unit (CPU) such as those made or designed byQUALCOMM, ARM®, Intel® Corporation, or AMD®, a microcontroller, anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor 80may comprise multiple separate physical entities that can be distributedin the device 70. The memory 82 may include random access memory (RAM)and/or read-only memory (ROM). The memory 82 is a non-transitory,processor-readable storage medium that stores the software 84 which isprocessor-readable, processor-executable software code containinginstructions that are configured to, when performed, cause the processor80 to perform various functions described herein. The description mayrefer only to the processor 80 or the device 70 performing thefunctions, but this includes other implementations such as where theprocessor 80 executes software and/or firmware. The software 84 may notbe directly executable by the processor 80 and instead may be configuredto, for example when compiled and executed, cause the processor 80 toperform the functions. Whether needing compiling or not, the software 84contains the instructions to cause the processor 80 to perform thefunctions. The processor 80 is communicatively coupled to the memory 82.The processor 80 in combination with the memory 82, the user interface86 (as appropriate), and/or the transceiver 88 may provide at least partof means for performing functions as described herein, for example,means for generating communications with device attributes and causingthe transceiver 88 to transmit these communications wirelessly from thedevice 70, means for receiving communications from other devices, meansfor transmitting communications to other devices including relaying atleast portions of received communications (e.g., forwarding/sendingportions of received communications), means for determining variousinformation such as position of the device 70, relative distance fromthe device 70 to another device, angle of arrival of a signal at thedevice 70, a change in position of another device with a mobility statusof “static,” etc., means for determining profile characteristics, meansfor determining reference characteristic values, means forre-determining reference characteristic values, means for determiningtest characteristic values, means for comparing the referencecharacteristic values to the test characteristic values, means fordetermining differences between the reference characteristic values andthe test characteristic values, means for sending requests, means formonitoring one or more RF characteristics, means for comparing one ormore RF characteristics with a reference RF profile, means forinitiating an action, means for determining corresponding contexts,means for providing an indication of context, means for taking auser-defined action, means for selecting a reference RF profile, meansfor receiving indications of measurements of values of one or more RFcharacteristics, means for determining contexts, means for generating areference RF profile, means for maintaining the reference RF profile,means for sending, etc. The software 84 can be loaded onto the memory 82by being downloaded via a network connection, uploaded from a disk, etc.The device 70 may be any of the wireless communication devices 40-48shown in FIG. 2, or another device. The term “wireless communicationdevice” does not require, as is apparent from the wireless communicationdevices 40-48, that the functionality of the device be exclusively, orevenly primarily, for communication, or that the device be a mobiledevice, but indicates that the device includes wireless communicationcapability (one-way or two-way), e.g., includes at least one radio (eachradio being part of a transmitter, receiver, or transceiver (including atransmitter and a receiver)) for wireless communication. The userinterface 86 (e.g., a display and/or a microphone and speaker) isoptional, e.g., with the tablet 44 and the smart phone 45 including adisplay, a microphone, and a speaker while the garage door opener 47does not (typically) include a display, a microphone, or a speaker,although the garage door opener 47 may include a user interface of somesort, e.g., switches operable by a user.

The transceiver 88 is configured to send communications wirelessly fromthe device 70 and to receive wireless communications into the device 70,e.g., from the wireless communication devices 40-48, the access point24, or the central controller 60. Thus, the transceiver 88 includes oneor more wireless communication radios (each with a correspondingantenna). In the example shown in FIG. 3, the transceiver 88 optionallyincludes a BLUETOOTH radio 90, a Wi-Fi radio 92, and a WirelessWide-Area Network (WWAN) (e.g., a long-term evolution (LTE)) radio 94.As shown, each of the radios 90, 92, 94 are optional, although thetransceiver 88 will include at least one wireless communication radio.Further, one or more other types of radios may be included in the device70 in addition to, or instead of, the radio(s) 90, 92, 94. If thetransceiver 88 includes more than one wireless communication radio, thenthe transceiver 88 may receive a wireless communication using one of thewireless communication radios, and transmit (e.g., relay or forward),the communication (or a portion thereof) using a different wirelesscommunication radio. The communication may be transmitted to another ofthe wireless communication devices 40-48 or to another device such asthe access point 24. Thus, for example, the device 70 may receive awireless communication using the BLUETOOTH radio 90, and forward thecommunication using the Wi-Fi radio 92 to another device that does notinclude a BLUETOOTH radio.

The sensor(s) 96 may be configured to measure one or more other types ofinformation. For example, the sensor(s) 96 may include a cameraconfigured to capture images, a microphone configured to measure sound,an orientation sensor configured to measure/determine an orientation ofthe device 70, and/or a thermometer configured to measure temperature,etc. The processor 80 may cause the memory 82 to store indicia of sensedinformation, e.g., of received sound, captured images, etc.

The processor 80 is configured to relay communications between devices,for example, from the central controller 60 to the devices 40-48 or fromthe devices 40-48 to the central controller 60. For example, theprocessor 80 may receive, via the transceiver 88, the request from thecentral controller 60 (directly or indirectly, e.g., from another of thedevices 40-48) for the location of one of the devices 40-48. Theprocessor 80 may relay the request to one or more of the devices 40-48within communication range of the device 70. The processor 80 is furtherconfigured to relay a reply from any of the devices 40-48 to the centralcontroller 60, or to another device for further relay until the replyreaches the central controller 60. The reply, for example, may be alocation of a target device, and the location may be a distance relativeto another device, for example from the device from which the reply isreceived.

Attribute Determination

The processor 80 is configured to generate, store (via the memory 82),modify, and transmit (via the transceiver 88) device attribute valuescorresponding to the device 70. The processor 80 may determine andupdate the attributes, e.g., each time the processor 80 detects apossible change in an attribute (e.g., range and/or AOA to anotherdevice, position of itself, a new device within communication range,etc.). The device attributes and their respective values stored by anyparticular device will typically vary depending on that device. Forexample, referring also to FIG. 4, the processor 80 may generate andmaintain an attribute table 110 including indications of attributes 112,values 114 of the attributes 112, and public/private status 116indicative of whether the corresponding attribute 112 is public orprivate. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the attribute table 110includes attributes of a device type 118, a device name/ID 120, amobility 122, a first position 124, a first position uncertainty 126(Pos Unc), a second position 128, a second position uncertainty 130, anda second angle of arrival 132. The second angle of arrival 132 is calledthe second, even though there is no first, angle of arrival in thisexample because the second angle of arrival 132 corresponds to thesecond position 128. In this example, the values 114 of the device type118, the device name/ID 120, and the mobility 122 are “refrigerator,”“frigid,” and “stationary,” respectively.

The processor 80 may store attribute values of other devices. Theprocessor 80 may maintain tables of attributes for devices presentlyand/or formerly within communication range of the device 70. Thus, theprocessor 80 may store attribute values of other devices and not justrelay the attribute values.

The processor 80 is configured to determine and provide positions of thedevice 70 relative to one or more reference locations or objects, andmay provide the positions in one or more formats. For example, theprocessor 80 may generate a position relative to a fixed location inspace. An example of this in the table 110 is the value of 114 of thefirst position 124 in ENU (East, North, up) coordinates. In thisexample, the value 114 of the first position 124 is “ENU equals [0 0 0]m” and is given in numbers of meters East, North, and up relative to areference location. For example, the coordinates may be relative to anorigin 11 (FIG. 2) that is even with a southernmost point of thestructure 36, a westernmost point of the structure 36, and a lowestpoint of the structure 36 (e.g., of the entire structure 36 or a portionthereof such as a floor of the structure 36). The origin 11, as shown inFIG. 2, may be displaced from the structure 36 or from a particularfloor of the structure 36. The value 114 of the first positionuncertainty 126 is an indication of the uncertainty in each of thecoordinates provided in the first position 124, and this example, being0 m for each of the coordinates. As an example of another form ofrelative position, the processor 80 may be able to determine a distancerelative to a reference location or object and an angle to that object(e.g., based on an angle of arrival of signals from that object). Forexample, in the table 110, the value 114 of the second position 128 is2.3 m relative to a reference object. Further, the second positionuncertainty 130 in this example is equal to 0.1 m, and the second angleof arrival 132 is equal to 43°. The angle of arrival (AOA) may beprovided relative to a reference direction, for example relative to truenorth or to magnetic north.

The processor 80 may be configured to determine the angle of arrival 132relative to an orientation of the device 70. The processor 80 maydetermine the angle of arrival using any of a variety of techniques suchas by analyzing received signals at one or more directional antennas ofthe radios 90, 92, 94 and analyzing information from one or moreorientation sensors included in the device 70 such as one or moremagnetometers and/or one or more accelerometers and/or a compass (suchas a digital compass). The processor 80 may be configured to analyzemultiple AOA determinations, e.g., determined from signals received bymore than one of the radios 90, 92, 94, and to combine the determinedangles, e.g., by averaging the determined angles.

The processor 80 may be configured to determine the distance to anobject using known techniques (e.g., ranging using RSSI, RTT, etc.). Theprocessor 80 may average/sample measurements over time and/or maydetermine ranges using multiple different techniques and/or measurementsfrom multiple radios to improve accuracy of position determination andto detect changes in location (at least relative to one or more neighbordevices). If the processor 80 is configured to use multiple radios todetermine range, then the processor 80 may be configured to select whichradio(s) to use based on an estimated distance to the object and/or anenvironment of the device 70. As examples, if a last known location ofthe object was more than 150 m, then the processor 80 may select to usethe WWAN radio 94, and if the object was last known to be less than 20 maway, then to use the BLUETOOTH radio 90 and the Wi-Fi radio 92. Theprocessor 80 may update the position of the device 70 based on newmeasurements. Preferably, to determine the position of the device 70,the processor uses measurements from three or more stationary deviceswhose stationary nature and positions are exchanged/broadcast. Theprocessor 80 may be configured to weight measurements more from deviceswhose mobility status is static. The processor 80 may use devices withprogrammed locations and/or with self-positioning capability (e.g., SPS,Wi-Fi positioning) as anchor reference objects. Based on determinedrelative positions to devices, and attribute values received (directlyor indirectly) for these devices, the processor 80 may determine statusof the devices, e.g., stationary, moved by 10 m, re-located and nowstationary, etc.

The processor 80 may be configured to self-monitor the position of thedevice 70. The processor 80 may be configured to determine a change inthe position of the device 70 based on a neighboring device list, rangesto neighbors, and/or an estimated position. A neighbor device is withinrange such that the neighbor device can receive a signal from the device70 and/or the device 70 can receive a signal from the neighbor device.Measurements from devices with a mobility status of mobile may be givenhigher weight than normal under certain circumstances, for example, ifthe device has not moved in longer than a threshold amount of time.

The processor 80 may be configured to provide peer monitoring to detectchanges in the location of one or more neighbor devices. For example,the processor 80 may detect and report a change in position of aparticular neighboring device if the positions of a majority of theneighboring devices are constant while the relative position of theparticular neighboring device changes. The processor 80 may report achange in position of a particular device if the existence of theparticular neighboring device on the neighbor list changes, e.g., frombeing on the list to not being on the list, or from not being on thelist to being on the list, while the ranges to other devices on theneighbor list remain the same.

The processor 80 is further configured to provide the public/privateindications 116 indicating whether the corresponding attribute is publicor private. The processor 80 is configured, in this example, to providea value of 0 for any attribute that is to be public and a value of 1 forany attribute that is to be private. The use of 0 as an indication of anattribute being public and 1 as an indication of an attribute beingprivate is an example only, and numerous other explicit indications ofpublic/private status may be used. An indication that an attribute ispublic indicates to a device receiving the attribute table 110 that thereceiving device may re-send the corresponding attribute an attributevalue to a further receiving device. An indication that an attribute isprivate indicates to a device receiving the attribute table 110 that thereceiving device may not re-send the corresponding attribute andattribute value to a further receiving device. The processor 80 isconfigured to receive attribute tables and to process the correspondingattributes in accordance with this public/private convention.

Alternatively, the processor 80 may generate an attribute table withoutthe public/private indications 116. The processor 80 may generate theattribute table without explicit indications of public/private statusbut may still generate the attribute table with an implicit indicationof public/private status for one or more of the attributes. For example,the processor 80 may generate and store the attribute table with publicattributes in locations of the attribute table that are implicitlypublic and store private attributes in the attribute table in locationsof the attribute table that are implicitly private. This technique,however, is an example only and numerous other techniques for implicitindications of public/private status may be used.

The processor 80 may be configured to process the attribute table 110 orat least one or more components thereof differently depending on thepublic/private status 116 of one or more of the attributes 112. Forexample, the processor 80 may be configured to broadcast the attributetable 110 to any device within communication range only if thepublic/private status 116 of all of the attributes 112 is public. Inthis way, non-sensitive attributes such as device type and mobilitystatus may be broadcast to any device within communication range. Forexample, if the device 70 is in a geographically excluded area such as ahome without a significant security risk and has a relatively shortdevice broadcast range (e.g., short range BLUETOOTH), then the device 70may broadcast all the attributes 112 which may provide for faster andeasier set up of the device 70 than if the attribute table 110 is notbroadcast. As another example, the processor 80 may be configured tobroadcast only those attributes 112 whose corresponding public/privatestatus 116 is public and to transmit the attributes 112 whosepublic/private status 116 is private only to devices that arecredentialed and paired with the device 70. In this case, the processor80 may be configured to transmit the entire attribute table 110 to thedevices that are credentialed and paired with the device 70. In thisway, sensitive attributes such as position can be protected and sharedonly with devices that are credentialed and paired with the device 70.For example, devices in a home network may share their respectiveattributes while a foreign device (e.g., and intruder's mobile phone)will not be able to access the private attributes of the devices in thehome network, including the locations of the devices in the homenetwork.

The processor 80 is further configured to process attributes receivedfrom other devices in the respective attribute tables according to thepublic/private status of the attributes in those tables. For example,the processor 80 preferably will not broadcast or otherwise retransmitthe received values of attributes whose public/private status isprivate, but can rebroadcast or otherwise retransmit attributes whosepublic/private status is public. In this way, attributes may be relayedbetween devices, e.g., the devices 40-48, and provided to the centralcontroller 60. The relaying/retransmitting of the attributes may bethrough the same radio and/or different radios (e.g., received via onetype of radio and retransmitted using one or more other types of radiosinstead of or in addition to the radio through which the attributes werereceived). Further, the processor 80 may use information received from atransmitting device for determining the position of the device 70 butnot provide information from which the position of the transmittingdevice may be determined if an appropriate attribute (e.g., a “devicediscovery permitted” attribute) transmitted by the transmitting deviceis indicated as being private.

The processor 80 may relay entire attribute tables received from otherdevices. For example, if the processor 80 receives an attribute tablefrom a “new” device, e.g., from a device with which the processor 80 hasnever communicated, or at least from which the processor 80 has neverreceived an attribute table (or possibly attributes even if not part ofa table), then the processor 80 may relay (e.g., retransmit using thetransceiver 88) the received attribute table. Further, the processor 80may relay an updated attribute table from a device, e.g., if theattribute table includes a version number that indicates that theattribute table is newer than a most-recent attribute table for thatdevice that the processor 80 has received.

Different ones of the devices 40-48 may have different priorities forrelaying information such as attribute tables. For example, plugged-indevices may have higher priority than devices that are not (at leastcurrently) plugged-in for relaying attribute tables and the devices40-48 may communicate to reduce or eliminate redundant relaying ofinformation. As another example, devices with more remaining batterylife (e.g., current and/or estimated future life) may have higherpriority for relaying information.

The device 70 may refuse an operation, such as relaying one or moreattributes and/or attribute tables. The processor 80 may have a set ofrules and/or criteria based upon which the processor 80 will refuse toperform one or more corresponding operations. The rules and/or criteria,and data corresponding to those rules and/or criteria may be tracked bythe device 70 and/or the central controller 60. For example, the device70 may refuse to relay an attribute table based on a battery level(existing and/or predicted) of/for the device 70. The processor 80 maybe configured to send a negative acknowledgement of the operationrefusal, e.g., a message indicating that the processor 80 did not orwill not relay the attribute table. The processor 80 may be configuredto send an indication of future operation refusal, e.g., that after acertain future time the processor 80 will not perform one or morespecified functions (e.g., relaying an attribute table). The future timemay be specified in any of a variety of ways such as a time of dayand/or an amount of time from the present time (e.g., 10 minutes fromnow). The processor 80 may include an indication of a reason for thefuture operation refusal, e.g., that the device 70 will have anunacceptably low battery level (which could be specified, e.g., 10% or5% of capacity).

The table 110 is an example only and more or fewer attributes may berecorded and/or transmitted by the processor 80 as part of an attributetable or independently of an attribute table. Further, other attributesthan those shown in the table 110 may be included in an attribute table(e.g., in addition to or in place of one or more of the attributes shownin the table 110). For example, possible other attributes include: alist of one or more trusted devices associated with the device 70, around-trip time associated with correspondence with another wirelesscommunication device and a location of that device, a supported rangingprotocol, a ranging uncertainty, a neighbor list indicative of accesspoints (or other devices) neighboring the device 70, a neighbor listhistory, whether the device 70 may be presented on a map, and whetherangle-of-arrival determinations are supported. Further, an indicationmay be provided as to an attribute that is not being included in anattribute table sent by the device 70 (e.g., position or altitude may beexplicitly indicated as not being provided if the position or altitudehas not been determined yet or the device does not have the capabilityto provide this information). As another example of more or fewerattributes than shown in FIG. 4 being possible, although in the table110 there is a position uncertainty corresponding to each position, thisis not required and one or more of any positions provided in any tableof attributes generated by the processor 80 may have a correspondingposition uncertainty or may not have a corresponding positionuncertainty provided. Further, although the table 110 shows an angle ofarrival associated with a position relative to an object, this is notrequired. The table 110 may also include an identity of an attribute forwhich an indication is not being transmitted by the device 70. Further,other attributes that may be included in the attribute table 110 oranother attribute table, although not shown in the attribute table 110,include, for example, power consumption, power/battery status (e.g.,current battery level such as remaining power amount (e.g., percent ofcapacity) and/or remaining time at current consumption rate, orprojected battery status, or if the device is connected to wall power),activity cycle (e.g., waking schedule of when or how often a devicewakes and for how long), supported wireless communication protocols(e.g., which versions of 802.11 that the device 70 supports (e.g., g, n,ac, ad)), point-of-interest location (e.g., room name, civic address,building name, store name, etc.), velocity (speed and direction), orspeed. Still other attributes may be included in the table 110 such as alist of one or more trusted devices associated with the device 70, asupported ranging protocol, and a ranging uncertainty. Also oralternatively, there may be sub-attributes or tiered attributes, such astiered locations with different levels of location specificity. Forexample, a point-of-interest (POI) location of the device 70 may belisted as “home” and further as “family room,” or as “California,” “SanDiego,” “Sorrento Valley,” “Sorrento Valley Road,” “1234 Sorrento ValleyRoad,” and “Room 14C.” Still other attributes are possible to beincluded in the attribute table 110 or another attribute table.

Also or alternatively, what attributes or attribute values are recordedand/or transmitted may vary based upon criteria such as time of day, dayof week, day of year, location, one or more other criteria, and/orcombinations of any of these. Thus, the content of the attribute table110, or what content of the attribute table 110 is transmitted, may bedynamic. An attribute that may or may not be included in the table 110,or may or may not be transmitted by the processor 80 (via thetransceiver 88) even if the attribute is included in the table 110, maybe considered to be a dynamic attribute. For example, transmission ofone or more attribute values may be disabled (or conversely, enabled) atcertain locations, or at locations other than one or more specifiedlocations (e.g., any location other than a user's home or other locationor region), etc.

The processor 80 is configured to generate and maintain, includingmodifying, the attribute table 110. For example, one or more of theattributes 112 may be dynamic such that the processor 80 may update theattribute table 110. For example, the processor 80 may update theposition of the device 70 intermittently (e.g., periodically), inresponse to a trigger such as the position of the device 70 changingmore than a threshold amount, or the position of the device 70 changingat all (e.g., if the mobility value 114 of the device 70 is“stationary”). Even if the device 70 is stationary, the processor 80 mayupdate the position of the device 70 as the position may be relative toanother device that is mobile, and/or may update the table 110 toindicate the time that the position was determined (even if the positionvalue(s) has(have) not changed). Further, many of the possibleattributes determined and provided by the processor 80 may be dynamicsuch as power status, battery status, power consumption, velocity,speed, point-of-interest location, etc.

Further, the processor 80 may update or modify the attributes (e.g., inthe attribute table 110) automatically or manually (in response to userinput). As manual examples, the processor 80 may receive input from theuser interface 86 and use this input to modify one or more of theattributes 112 such as the device name/ID 120 and/or the position of thedevice 70 (e.g., the ENU coordinates). As an automatic example, theprocessor 80 may be configured to determine (calculate or receive) andupdate the position of the device 70 (e.g., using any of a variety oftechniques such as satellite positioning system (SPS), round-trip timecalculation, observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) calculation,received signal strength indication (RSSI) calculation, etc.). Theprocessor 80 may be configured to receive a mapping of POI names andassociated geographic regions, e.g., a mapping of the structure 36 shownin FIG. 2 with corresponding POI names for different regions (e.g.,kitchen, family room, and garage as shown in FIG. 2). The processor 80may determine which of the geographic locations (e.g., regions,coordinates, etc.) in the map corresponds to the location of the device70. The processor 80 may be configured to determine the POI name basedon the determined geographic location (e.g., using a look-up table ofregions and POI names, or a look-up table of coordinate ranges and POInames). The processor 80 may be configured to store (e.g., initiallywrite, or update) the POI name associated with the geographic locationthat corresponds to the location of the device 70, e.g., in the table110 in the memory 82, as an indication of the location of the device 70.

The processor 80 may also, or alternatively, be configured to update theattributes (e.g., in the attribute table 110) automatically in responseto receiving one or more attribute values from one or more deviceswithin communication range of the device 70. For example, the processor80 may receive, via the transceiver 88, one or more indications of POIlocation names of one or more devices within communication range of thedevice 70. The processor 80 may respond to receiving such indication(s)by modifying the value 114 of a POI name attribute in the table 110 toone of the received names, e.g., based on the number of devices with thesame POI name, or based on the proximity of the other device(s) to thedevice 70, or based on mobility status of the other device(s), or one ormore other criteria, or on a combination of two or more thereof. Forexample, the processor may change the value of the POI name attribute inthe table 110 (e.g., to “family room”) in response to a threshold numberof received POI names from neighbor devices being “family room.” Asanother example, the processor 80 may change the POI name in the table110 in response to multiple devices having the same POI name and havinglocations relative to the device 70 within a threshold distance. Asanother example, the processor 80 may change the POI name in the table110 to the POI name of a device that is within a threshold distance ofthe device 70. As another example, the processor may change the POI namein the table 110 to the POI name of a static device that is within athreshold distance of the device 70.

The processor 80 may also, or alternatively, be configured to transmitan alert indication in response to one or more criteria being met. Forexample, the processor 80 may be configured to receive an indicationfrom another device, such as one of the devices 40-48, that the otherdevice has a mobility status of static. The processor 80 may beconfigured to determine the location of the other device relative to thedevice 70 changes and transmit an indication that the location of theother device relative to the device 70 has changed (and possibly alsothat the mobility status is static). For example, the processor 80 maytransmit, via the transceiver 88, an indication to the centralcontroller 60 (directly or indirectly) that the other device, whilesupposed to be static, has moved. This indication, for example, maybe analert that the other device is being stolen or otherwise improperlymoved (e.g., a child moving an object that should not be moved).

As another example of location format for a location attribute,referring also to FIG. 5, the processor 80 may generate and maintain anattribute table 150 including indications of attributes 152, values 154of the attributes 152, and public/private status 156 indicative ofwhether the corresponding attribute 152 is public or private. In theexample shown in FIG. 5, the attribute table 150 includes attributes 152of a device type 158, a device name/ID 160, a mobility 162, a firstposition 164, and a first position uncertainty 166. In this example, thevalues 154 of the device type 158, the device name/ID 160, and themobility 162 are “Mobile phone,” “Eldest child's phone,” and “mobile,”respectively. Further, the first position 164 has a value 154 that isprovided in terms of latitude, longitude, and altitude (LAA). In thisexample, the value 154 of the first position 164 is 37.8° latitude,−122.4° longitude, and 80 m in altitude (e.g., relative to sea level).Further in this example, the public/private status 156 of the firstposition 164 and the first position uncertainty 166 is private. That is,the processor 80 has generated the attribute table 150 to indicate thatthe values 154 of the first position 164 and the first positionuncertainty 166 are not to be retransmitted (e.g., rebroadcast) by anydevice receiving the attribute table 150.

Profile Determination

The processor 80 may be configured to obtain environmental profilescomprising collections of values of characteristics of an environmentcontaining multiple wireless communication devices. The values of thecharacteristics may include, for example, values of RF (radio frequency)signals, indicia of devices transmitting the RF signals, or valuesmeasured by the sensor(s) 96. The processor 80 may obtain theenvironmental profiles by measuring, determining, and/or receiving(e.g., from another device that measures or determines) the values ofthe characteristics. Profile values may be thought of as attributes, andlike attributes, can be shared, stored, and used for various purposessuch as determining changes in environments and/or triggering actions.To determine/measure the environmental profiles, the processor 80 may beconfigured to initiate an environment profile determination modeintermittently (e.g., periodically at regular intervals, at irregularintervals, at variable intervals, in response to a trigger, etc.). Theenvironment profile determination mode may include a sniffer mode inwhich the processor 80 passively scans and measures signals fromneighboring devices. The environment profile determination mode may alsoor alternatively include an active discovery mode in which the processor80 sends inquiries to one or more neighboring devices, e.g., by sendinga ping (that may be unicast, multicast, or broadcast). The processor 80may analyze measurements of signals received by the device 70 (e.g.,passively or in response to an inquiry by the processor 80) to determineprofile values such as RTT, RSSI, device ID, channel estimate (estimateof channel impulse response), etc. The environment profile determinationmode may be triggered by an external entity such as a neighboring deviceor the central controller 60 sending a signal to the device 70, e.g.,that indicates to initiate the environment profile determination mode.The amount of time spent sniffing (listening) for signals and/or thetime(s) between sniffing may vary, and may depend upon a user state. Forexample, the processor 80 may sniff more often (i.e., time gaps, be theyconsistent or variable, between sniffing may be shorter) if a user is ina relatively-higher activity state (e.g., a high activity state) than ifthe user is in a relatively-lower activity state (e.g., an inactivitystate or a sleep state). As another example, the frequency of sniffingmay decrease in response to the measured profile being relativelystatic, i.e., not changing or changing little of a threshold amount oftime. In this case, the processor 80 may enter a sleep mode, where nosniffing is performed, until an event occurs (e.g., passage of an amountof time). How often the processor 80 actively seeks to discover channelprofile values may also vary, e.g., based upon the user state.

The processor 80 may be configured to produce and/or maintain (e.g.,modify/update) one or more environment profile tables withdetermined/measured environment profile information. For example,referring also to FIG. 6, the processor 80 may be configured to produceand maintain an environment profile table 600 with profiles 610. Each ofthe profiles 610 includes subsets 612 of values of profilecharacteristics 614. In this example, the subset 612 ₁ is for atelevision, the subset 612 ₂ is for a family room smoke detector, thesubset 612 ₃ is for a phone associated with User1, and the subset 612 ₄is for keys associated with User1. To fill the environment profile table600, the processor 80 may be configured to determine/measure values ofthe profile characteristics 614 in the environment profile determinationmode. For example, the characteristics 614 may include a measuringdevice ID 620, a measured device ID 621, an RTT 622, an RSSI 623, RF(Radio Frequency) channel characteristics 624, a latency 625, a time ofday 626, a day 627, an activity 628, and a context ID 629. The latency625 corresponds to the transmitting device, i.e., the device from whichthe one or more signals were received by the processor 80. The processor80 may analyze one or more signals received from a device to determineone or more values of the characteristics 614. The measuring device ID620 identifies the device that obtains, e.g., measures, one or moresignals from which the profile information is determined whereas themeasured device ID 621 identifies the device from which one or moresignals were received to determine the associated profile information.As shown, the values of the measuring device ID 620 and the measureddevice ID 621 are labels but other values may be used, for example, aMAC (Media Access Control) address for the respective device (that mayor may not be mapped to a label). The processor 80 may be configured toassign a value of the measuring device ID 620 to each subset 612 of theprofiles 610 as shown, or may be configured to assign a value of themeasuring device ID 620 to the profile 610 as a whole (i.e., onemeasuring device ID 620 for the entire profile 610). The measuringdevice ID 620 may be omitted, but may be useful when consideringprofiles determined/measured by different devices, e.g., storing theprofiles or comparing the profiles (as discussed further below). The RFchannel characteristics may include, for example, delay spread, peakpower to average power ratio, etc. Here, the delay spread (a measure ofmultipath richness of a communications channel) is the difference innanoseconds between a first arrival time of a signal from a device and alast arrival time of that signal. The environment profile table 600 maybe produced and/or maintained by the device 70 and/or the centralcontroller 60.

The processor 80 may be configured to determine and fill the channelprofile table 600 with a time of day 626, a day 627, and an activity628, all corresponding to a timing of signals used to determine valuesof the entries 621-625. For example, the processor 80 may assign a valueto the time of day 626 and the day 627 based upon when the environmentprofile determination mode is initiated that results indetermining/measuring values of other ones of the characteristics 614for the respective profile subsets 612. The value of the activity 628characteristic may indicate qualities that depend upon the correspondingdevice. For example, for the TV, the value of the activity 628 may be ONor OFF, or there may be a more detailed activity value available (e.g.,a channel being viewed). As another example, for the smoke alarm, thevalue of the activity 628 may be ON, OFF (e.g., inactive/inoperable), orSOUNDING (e.g., if smoke is presently detected). The value of theactivity 628 may indicate an activity level, e.g., an amount ofmovement. For example, for the User1 phone, the value may be High, Low,None.

The processor 80 may determine the context of the profile 610 and assigna value of the context ID 629 accordingly. The context ID may indicatethe context, e.g., watching TV, jogging, sleeping, etc., or, as in theexample shown, indicate a code (here, a number) that is mapped to acontext description. For example, a context ID value of 3 may correspondto daytime on a weekday with no activity (e.g., user away from home),and a context ID value of 4 may correspond to weekday evening, userwatching television. The processor 80 might not be configured todetermine the context ID 629 for each of the profiles 610, e.g., beingconfigured to determine the context ID 629 only for clusters of profiles(discussed further below), or only for profiles (whether clustered ornot) once the processor 80 has attempted to cluster the profiles 610.The processor 80 may be configured to assign a value of the context ID629 to each subset 612 of the profiles 610 as shown, or may beconfigured to assign a value of the context ID 629 to the profile 610 asa whole (i.e., one context ID 629 for the entire profile 610). Further,if the processor 80 does not determine the context (e.g., is unable todetermine the context), then the processor 80 may omit a value of thecontext ID 629 or may provide a generic value for the context ID 629.

The processor 80 may be configured to determine the context of theprofiles 610 in any of a variety of ways. For example, the processor 80may be configured to determine the context based on analysis of one ormore values of the characteristics 621-628, to infer the context, and/orby querying a user for input. For example, if the processor 80determines that variations in values of the characteristics 622-625 arelow, e.g., below one or more corresponding thresholds, then theprocessor 80 may conclude that the context is that a user is not home,e.g., if the profiles 610 correspond to devices within the user's home.As another example, if the processor 80 determines that variations ofthe characteristics 622-625 are low but that the user is home (e.g.,that the user's phone and/or the user's keys are present), then theprocessor 80 may conclude that the context is that the user is home butasleep. As yet another example, the processor 80 may be configured tosend an inquiry to a user asking the user for input as to the contextfor a profile, e.g., the present context for a profile being determined,or the context for a particular day and time corresponding to a profilethat has already been determined, or the context for a profile providedto the user in the inquiry. The inquiry may include one or more rangesfor characteristics such as time of day. The processor 80 may providethe inquiry in any of a variety of ways. For example, the processor 80may send an inquiry that manifests as a pop-up window on a display of auser's device (e.g. a smartphone) asking for the context for a bedroom,in which a particular alarm clock is present, of the user's house from12 AM to 6 AM. The processor 80 may then store, as the context ID 629, aresponse received from the user, e.g., Child1 sleeping.

The processor 80 may be configured to determine clusters of the profiles610 having one or more common or similar characteristic values, such assimilar contexts. Characteristic values may be considered to be similarif the values are within one or more ranges for the characteristic. Forexample, profiles 610 with time of day 626 values within an eveningrange (e.g., 6 PM-10 PM), or a night range (e.g., 10 PM-6 AM), or amorning range (e.g., 6 AM-12 PM), or an afternoon range (e.g., 12 PM-6PM) may be clustered with other profiles having time of day 626 valueswith the same range. These ranges are examples only, and otherquantities and/or durations of ranges may be used, for example forranges of time where more frequent profile determinations/measurementsare made. Also, what value(s) is(are) used to cluster the profiles 610is not limited, and can be any of the available characteristics or acombination of characteristics. Also or alternatively, the processor 80may cluster profiles 610 that have multiple characteristics with commonor similar values. For example, the processor 80 may cluster theprofiles 610 that have similar values of the time of day 626 and similarvalues of, or the same value of, the day 627, and possibly the same orsimilar activity level 628. Also or alternatively, the processor 80 maycluster the profiles 610 based on status of one or more devices (e.g.,whether a device is on or off). Also or alternatively, the processor 80may cluster the profiles 610 based on one or more users, e.g.,clustering the profiles 610 associated with the same user or withsimilar users. For example, the processor 80 may cluster the profiles610 based on a user included in the profiles 610 (e.g., User1 implicitlyidentified in the profiles 610 ₁ and 610 ₂ due to the device ID 621values in each of these profiles 610). As another example, the processor80 may cluster the profiles 610 based on target users, e.g., users ofthe devices from which values of the profile characteristics 614 weredetermined/measured, or users identified by movement/activity pattern ofthe user (e.g., of the user's device(s)). As examples, there may bedifferent clusters for night, morning, afternoon, evening, in home,outside home, context (e.g., studying, playing, watching TV, onvacation, etc.), etc., or a combination of two or more of these(including using one or more criteria not listed). In these examples,the profile 610 ₃ is not clustered with another profile, but the profile610 ₃ may be clustered with the profile 610 ₁ and/or the profile 610 ₂and/or one or more other profiles 610 in other examples.

Referring also to FIG. 7, the processor 80 may produce and maintain aclustered profile table 700. In this example, the clustered profiletable 700 includes a clustered profile 710 ₁ and a non-clustered profile710 ₂. The clustered profile 710 ₁ is a combined profile determined bythe processor 80 from the profiles 610 ₁ and 610 ₂ because the profiles610 ₁, 610 ₂ have values of the time of day 626 that are similar, bothbeing in the evening, values of the day 627 that are identical, andidentical values of activity 628 of the same device, here User1's phone.Characteristics 714 in the profile table 700 include a measuring deviceID 720, a measured device ID 721, an RTT 722, an RSSI 723, RF channelcharacteristics 724, a latency 725, a time of day 726, a day 727, anactivity 728, and a context ID 729. The clustered profile 710 ₁ hasranges of values of the characteristics 714 whose values were notidentical in the profiles 610 that were combined. In this example, theclustered profile 710 ₁ has ranges of values of delay spread for the TV,the family room smoke detector, the User1 phone, and the User1 keys,ranges of values of the peak power to average power ratio for the TV,the family room smoke detector, and the User1 keys. These are examplesonly, and other characteristics, e.g., the RTT and/or the RSSI, may haveranges in clustered profiles. In any given clustered profile, one ormore of the characteristics 714 may have a range of values. Further,ranges of values may be named (e.g., simplified). For example, insteadof the value of the time of day 726 for the profile 710 ₁ being21:00-22:00 as shown, the value of the time of day 726 could be“evening.” As with the environment profile table 600, the clusteredprofile table 700 may be produced and/or maintained by the device 70and/or the central controller 60.

The processor 80 may share some or all of the profile table 600 and/orsome or all of the profile table 700 with one or more other devices(e.g., the devices 40-48, 50, 52, 54, 56 shown in FIG. 2), and mayreceive profile information from other devices. The processor 80 maystore information received from one or more other devices in the profiletable 600 and/or the profile table 700. The processor 80 may requestprofile information from other devices, may respond to requests by otherdevices by sending profile information to the other devices. Forexample, the processor 80 may send profile information to the centralcontroller 60 and/or receive profile information from the centralcontroller 60. Also or alternatively, the processor 80 may directlycommunicate with another device (e.g., the devices 40-48, 50, 52, 54, 56shown in FIG. 2) via the transceiver 88, i.e., sending a communicationto the other device, or receiving a communication from the other device,without the communication passing through an intermediate device. Theprocessor 80 may send profile measurement data to the central controller60 to compile the profile table 600 and/or the profile table 700. Forexample, the processor 80 may send the profile table 600 to the centralcontroller 60 for determining the profile table 700 by clustering thesubsets 612 of profile data.

The processor 80 may send out and/or receive profile information to/fromanother device to help with determination of profiles. The processor maysend/receive such information directly to/from the other device. Profileinformation received from another device may be combined by theprocessor 80 with profile information determined by the processor 82help improve the quality (e.g., accuracy) of the profiles 610, 710determined by the processor 80. The processor 80 may use receivedprofile information to re-determine profile information of the profiles610, 710. For example, profile information determined by a mobiledevice, such as a smart phone, may be combined with profile informationdetermined by one or more static devices. The processor 80 may use thereceived information to help train the determination of profileinformation by the processor 80 (e.g., based on information from thesensor(s) 96), particularly if the received information comes from adevice with more accurate sensing than the device 70. Further, theprocessor 80 may use information regarding context received from anotherdevice to modify the profiles 610, 710. For example, mobile devices mayhave more information about context that can be shared with theprocessor 80, and the processor 80 may use the context information toimprove the determined context for the profiles 610, 710.

Referring to FIG. 8, with further reference to FIGS. 1-2, an example ofthe central controller 60 comprises a computer system including aprocessor 180, a memory 182 including software (SW) 184, an optionaluser interface 186, and a transceiver 188 optionally including aBLUETOOTH (BT) radio 190, a Wi-Fi radio 192, and/or a WWAN radio 194.Other types of radios may also or alternatively be used, e.g., aBLUETOOTH-Low Energy (BT-LE) radio. The processor 180 is preferably anintelligent hardware device, for example a central processing unit (CPU)such as those made or designed by QUALCOMM®, ARM®, Intel® Corporation,or AMD®, a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC), etc. The processor 180 may comprise multiple separate physicalentities that can be distributed in the central controller 60. Thememory 182 may include random access memory (RAM) and/or read-onlymemory (ROM). The memory 182 is a non-transitory, processor-readablestorage medium that stores the software 184 which is processor-readable,processor-executable software code containing instructions that areconfigured to, when performed, cause the processor 180 to performvarious functions described herein. The description may refer only tothe processor 180 or the central controller 60 performing the functions,but this includes other implementations such as where the processor 180executes software and/or firmware. The software 184 may not be directlyexecutable by the processor 180 and instead may be configured to, forexample when compiled and executed, cause the processor 180 to performthe functions. Whether needing compiling or not, the software 184contains the instructions to cause the processor 180 to perform thefunctions. The processor 180 is communicatively coupled to the memory182. The processor 180 in combination with the memory 182, the userinterface 86 (as appropriate), and/or the transceiver 188 may provide atleast part of means for performing functions as described herein, forexample, means for determining profile characteristics, means fordetermining reference characteristic values, means for re-determiningreference characteristic values, means for determining testcharacteristic values, means for comparing the reference characteristicvalues to the test characteristic values, means for determiningdifferences between the reference characteristic values and the testcharacteristic values, means for sending requests, means for monitoringone or more RF characteristics, means for comparing one or more RFcharacteristics with a reference RF profile, means for initiating anaction, means for determining corresponding contexts, means forproviding an indication of context, means for taking a user-definedaction, means for selecting a reference RF profile, means for receivingindications of measurements of values of one or more RF characteristics,means for determining contexts, means for generating a reference RFprofile, means for maintaining the reference RF profile, means forsending, etc. At least some of the functions that may be performed bythe central controller 60 may be performed by the server 30. Thesoftware 184 can be loaded onto the memory 182 by being downloaded via anetwork connection, uploaded from a disk, etc. The central controller 60is shown in FIG. 2 as a standalone device separate from the devices40-48, but the central controller 60 could be implemented by one or moreof the devices 40-48 and/or one or more other wireless communicationdevices such as the access point 24. The central controller 60 ispreferably, though not necessarily, a (primarily) static device.

Referring also to FIGS. 3 and 6-7, the processor 180 may be configuredto compile environmental profiles and store the environmental profilesin the memory 182. For example, the processor 180 may compile and storethe profile table 600 and/or the profile table 700 in the memory 182.Thus, the processor 180 may perform functions discussed above withrespect to the processor 80, such as determining context and clusteringappropriate ones of the profiles 610, regarding arranging and combiningprofile information measured and determined by the device 70. Thediscussion above addresses the processor 80 performing the variousfunctions, but the discussion above applies equally well to theprocessor 180 of the central controller 60. The discussion below focuseson the central controller 60 performing various functions, but thesefunctions may be performed by the device 70.

Triggering Action Using Profiles

The controller 60 may be configured to compare test profile informationagainst stored profile information and to classify the test profile. Thetest profile contains values of characteristics called testcharacteristic values. For example, the central controller 60 cancompare test profile information (e.g., a new profile received from thedevice 70) to the profiles 710 to determine measures of similarity (ordifference) to the profiles 710. The controller 60 may compare less thanall of the information in a test profile to corresponding values of theprofiles 710. For example, the controller 60 may compare only values ofRTT, RSSI, RF channel characteristics, and/or latency of the testprofile information with corresponding values of the profiles 710. Thecontroller 60 may compare the test profile information to a subset ofthe profiles 710. For example, only the profiles 710 that have times ofday, days, and/or measuring device IDs that match the test profileinformation. As another example, the controller 60 may compare the testprofile information only to the profiles 710 corresponding to locationsthat are close to (e.g., the same room in a house) a locationcorresponding to the test profile information (e.g., the location of themeasuring device). The controller 60 may classify the test profile ascorresponding to one or more of the values of the characteristics 714 ofthe profile 710 that most closely matches the test profile and that werenot used to compare the test profile with the profiles 710. For example,the controller 60 may classify the test profile as corresponding to thecontext of the profile 710 whose values of RF channel characteristics,latency, time of day, day, and activity level most closely matchcorresponding values of the test profile.

The controller 60 may be configured to compare test profile informationagainst stored profile information and to take an action based on thesimilarity of the test profile information and reference profileinformation of the stored profile information. The controller 60 may beconfigured to compare a test profile with the profiles 710 as discussedabove, to select a reference profile from the profiles 710, and/or toreceive a manual indication of the reference profile. The referenceprofile contains values of characteristics, called referencecharacteristic values, for comparison with the test characteristicvalues. The controller 60 may be configured to compare the test profilewith the reference profile, i.e., to compare the test characteristicvalues with the reference characteristic values. For example, thecontroller 60 may a select, as a reference profile, one of the profiles710 whose context corresponds to the context of the test profile, e.g.,whose value of the context ID 729 matches the corresponding value of thetest profile. The controller 60 may use more than one characteristicvalue to select the reference profile. For example, the controller 60may a select, as the reference profile, one of the profiles 710 whosevalues of the context ID 729, the time of day 726, and the day 727 matchthe corresponding values of the test profile. The controller 60 may beconfigured to determine a measure of similarity between the test profileand one or more of the stored profiles 710. The controller 60 maydetermine the measure of similarity of the reference profile and thetest profile by comparing one or more values of the characteristics 714of the reference profile against the corresponding characteristic(s) ofthe test profile. For example, the controller 60 may compare one or morevalues of the corresponding characteristics 714 other than those used todetermine the reference profile. The controller 60 may compare the testprofile and the reference profile as a whole, may compare an individualvalue (e.g., to determine whether a test profile value outside of arange of the reference profile), or may compare fewer than all thecharacteristics of the test and reference profiles. The controller 60may be configured to take appropriate action based on the measure ofsimilarity of the test profile and the profiles 710. For example, thecontroller 60 may take an action if the test profile is within athreshold similarity of one of the stored profiles 710. As an example ofthis, the controller 60 may turn on a light if the test profile is mostsimilar to a profile with a context of a user watching TV in theevening, and the controller 60 determines that a room in which the userpresently resides is below a threshold brightness (e.g., as measured bythe sensor 96), or does not have any light turned on. Also oralternatively, the controller 60 may take an action if the test profilediffers by more than a threshold difference from a similar one of theprofiles 710. The controller 60 may be configured to take an action ifthe difference between the test profile and the reference profileexceeds a threshold. For example, the controller 60 may sound an alarm,send an alert (e.g., text, images, video, etc.) to the user, and/or sendan alert to the police, etc. in response to the controller 60determining that the test profile differs by more than a thresholdamount from the reference profile where the reference profile has acontext of the user being on vacation. An example of such a differencemay be the presence of a device not present in the reference profile.The controller 60 may be configured to determine a difference indicativeof a particular condition such as motion. The controller 60 may beconfigured to act differently in response to different differences inthe test profile and the reference profile.

The controller 60 may be configured to take different various actionsbased on the measure of similarity between the test profile and thereference profile. Actions to be taken, and/or one conditions triggeringthe actions, may be configured by a user. Different actions may be basedon the context of the reference profile and/or the nature of thedifference between the test profile in the reference profile. Forexample, the controller 60 may be configured to turn a device on or offbased on the measure of similarity and the context of the referenceprofile. As another example, the controller 60 may be configured to sendan alert (e.g., of intruder) to a user in response to the controller 60determining possible motion in an environment (e.g., RTT, RSSI, and/orRF channel characteristics differing from test profile to referenceprofile too much) when the context is indicative of no motion beingexpected (e.g., the user is at work, the user is on vacation, etc.). Asyet another example, the controller 60 may be configured to detectunexpected user behavior such as the user leaving the user's house, withno other person in the house, while the television 48 is on.

The controller 60 may be configured to provide one or more servicesbased on comparing the test profile and the reference profile. Thecontroller 60 may be configured to act as an inactivity (e.g., silence)detector, e.g., by determining a lack of change in environment whenchange is expected. For example, the controller 60 may determine thatthe test profile is stagnant over time while there are one or moreranges of values in the reference profile. This may occur, for example,when an elderly person, a child, or a pet is at home and is expected tobe moving but is not, e.g., if the elderly person, child, or pet isinjured. The controller 60 may take an appropriate action, e.g.notifying the user or an emergency service, in response to detectingunexpected inactivity. The controller 60 may be configured to detectunexpected motion of mobile devices. For example, if the test profileindicates that a child is unexpectedly leaving a house, e.g., thechild's mobile phone is going amount of Wi-Fi range or the RTT is higherthan expected based on the reference profile (e.g., corresponding to aweekday evening), then the controller 60 may take an appropriate actionsuch as sending an alert to the child's parent. The controller 60 mayserve as a thief or stranger detector. For example, if a user sets thereference profile to an on-vacation profile, and the comparison of thetest profile to the reference profile shows a device in the test profilethat is not in the reference profile, then the controller 60 may takeappropriate action such as sounding an alarm, sending an alert, turningon a security light, etc. The controller 60 may serve safety,energy-conserving, and/or convenience functions. For example, thecontroller 60 may be configured to turn a device on or off in responseto determining that nobody is home. Thus, the controller 60 may turnair-conditioning off, turn a robot vacuum cleaner on, and/or turn atoaster off in response to determining that nobody is or has been homefor a threshold amount of time.

A device other than the controller 60 may be configured to determine thereference profile, compare the reference profile with the test profile,and/or take one or more actions in response to the results of thecomparison. For example, any of the devices 40-48 shown in FIG. 2 may beconfigured to perform one or more of these functions.

Further, multiple devices may collaborate to determine whether thedifference in the test profile compared to the reference profilewarrants a responsive action. A requesting device (e.g., the controller60 or other device) may attempt to confirm, or at least increaseconfidence in, a determination regarding a test profile and a referenceprofile. For example, the requesting device may respond to making anenvironment-change determination that the measure of similarity betweena first test profile and a first reference profile exceeds (or does notexceed) a threshold by sending a request to another device (the“requested device”) to obtain measurement data or even a second testprofile from the requested device. The requesting device may compare themeasurement data with data measured by the requesting device todetermine whether the measurement data from the two devices areconsistent. The requesting device may also, or alternatively, comparethe second test profile with a second reference profile that has asimilar (or identical) context as the first reference profile but hasthe requested device as the measuring device to determine whether thesecond test profile differs from the second reference profile similarlyto the first test profile differing from the first reference profile. Asanother example, the requesting device may combine the first testprofile with the second test profile to form a combined test profile,and compare the combined test profile with a corresponding combinedreference profile to determine whether there is a difference (or lackthereof) in the measure of similarity warranting performance of anaction.

Further still, multiple devices may collaborate to notify one device ofa determined measure of similarity by another device. For example, adevice such as the television 48 may inform another device such as thedishwasher 40 that the television 48 determined a significant differencebetween the test profile and the reference profile. As another example,a device such as the television 48 may instruct one or more of the otherdevices, such as the dishwasher 40 and the refrigerator 43, to captureand send images to the controller 60. As yet another example, the devicemay instruct one or more other devices to send measurement profiles tothe controller 60.

Profile Maintenance

Maintaining the profile tables 600, 700 allows the processor 180 (and/orthe processor 80) to adapt to long-term environmental changes for whichprofile information can be determined and used for comparison asreference profile information. While maintenance of the profile tables600, 700 may be performed by the device 70, or the controller 60, or oneor more other devices, or a combination thereof, the discussion hereuses the example of the controller 60 maintaining the profile tables600, 700. The processor 180 may be configured to maintain the profiletables 600, 700 by learning new profile information and updating thetables 600, 700 by re-determining profile information that may be usedas reference profiles. Learning by the processor 80 may be initiated ina variety of manners, for example, intermittent (e.g., periodic)learning triggered by passage of an amount of time, event-triggeredlearning triggered by the occurrence or non-occurrence of an event, inresponse to user instruction, etc.

For intermittent learning of profile information, the processor 180 mayinitiate obtaining profile information in response to passage of anamount of time since a most-recent learning. The amount of time may bespecified by a user, a manufacturer of the controller 60, or by anotherentity. The processor 180 may initiate learning by instructing thedevice 70 to measure/determine present profile information and reportthat information to the controller 60. The controller 60 may use thereported information to update the profiles 610, 710 (e.g., by replacingprofile information, averaging profile information, replacing old datapoints used for averaging with new data points (e.g., first in, firstout (FIFO) data usage) and re-computing the average, etc.). The amountof time used as the trigger may be consistent (e.g., for periodiclearning), or may vary.

For event-triggered learning, one or more of a variety of events maytrigger profile learning. For example, the controller 60 may beconfigured to detect if a position of a device, e.g., of atypically-static device, changes by more than a threshold distance andrespond to detecting this change by triggering learning of profileinformation. As another example, the controller 60 may be configured totrigger learning in response to determining that a profile change hasbecome static (e.g., multiple consecutive test profiles differ from areference profile but do not differ, or differ by less than a thresholdamount, from each other for more than a static-profile threshold amountof time). Thus, an initial determination of the change may trigger anaction, such as an alert, and continued determination of the same orsimilar change may trigger learning to update the reference profile. Inthis case, the processor 180 may discard profile informationdetermined/measured before the change. As another example, thenow-static profile may not have differed significantly from thereference profile, but would significantly alter the reference profileif used to form a new reference profile (e.g., using some or all of thedata used to produce the present reference profile). As yet anotherexample, the controller 60 may be configured to trigger learning inresponse to determining that a test profile differs from the savedprofiles 610, 710 by more than a threshold amount. In this example, thecontroller 60 may be configured to trigger learning in response todetermining that the test profile is less than a threshold likelihood ofcorresponding to any of the saved profiles 610, 710. For example, thiscould be determining that the context of the test profile has less thanthe threshold likelihood of corresponding to the context of any of thesaved profiles 610, 710. A combination of two or more events may be usedto trigger learning of the profile information.

User-instructed profile information learning may or may not be promptedby the processor 180. A user may send an instruction to the processor180 via the user interface 186 for the processor 180 to learn presentprofile information. The processor 180 may prompt the user via the userinterface 186 as to whether the user wants the processor 180 to initiatelearning of profile information. For example, the processor 180 mayrespond to determining that the test profile differs from the referenceprofile by prompting the user for a learning instruction. The processor180 may prompt the user for the learning instruction depending on thedegree of difference between the test profile and the reference profile,e.g., prompting the user for the learning instruction in response to thetwo profiles differing by a learning-prompt threshold that is greaterthan the threshold inducing another action such as an alert.

Operation

Referring to FIG. 9, with further reference to FIGS. 1-8, a method 350of analyzing characteristic values corresponding to RF signals includesthe stages shown. The method 310 is, however, an example only and notlimiting. The method 350 may be altered, e.g., by having stages added,removed, rearranged, combined, performed concurrently, and/or havingsingle stages split into multiple stages.

At stage 352, the method 350 includes obtaining reference characteristicvalues corresponding to first radio-frequency signals transmitted bytransmitting wireless communication devices. For example, stage 352 mayinclude the processor 80 determining one or more of the referencecharacteristic values by analyzing RF signals received by thetransceiver. Also or alternatively, stage 352 may include the processor80 receiving one or more of the reference characteristic values from thesensor(s) 96. Also or alternatively, stage 352 may include the processor80 receiving one or more indications of one or more of the RF signals,the processor 80 deriving one or more of the reference characteristicvalues from the one or more indications. Also or alternatively, stage352 may include the processor 80 receiving one or more of the referencecharacteristic values (or one or more indications of one or more of theRF signals) from another wireless communication device, e.g., using ashort-range wireless communication technique such as BLUETOOTH® wirelesstechnology. Also or alternatively, stage 352 may include the processor180 of the controller 60 measuring, determining, and/or receiving one ormore of the reference characteristic values. For example, stage 352 mayinclude the processor 180 determining one or more of the referencecharacteristic values from information received from another wirelesscommunication device indicative of one or more of the RF signals. Thereference characteristic values may include, for example, values of oneor more of the profile characteristics 614 shown in FIG. 6, and/or oneor more other characteristics (e.g., sound volume, device status (e.g.,ON, OFF), etc.). Further, one or more different characteristics may beobtained from different RF signals and/or from different transmittingdevices.

Also or alternatively, stage 352 may include combining sets ofcharacteristic values, each of the sets of characteristic valuescorresponding to a similar context, to obtain the referencecharacteristic values. For example, stage 352 may include the processor80 and/or the processor 180 clustering profiles, e.g., respective onesof the profiles 610 with the same or similar contexts, into clusteredprofiles.

Also or alternatively, stage 352 may include re-determining thereference characteristic values. For example, stage 352 may include theprocessor 80 and/or the processor 180 determining the referencecharacteristic values using the first radio-frequency signals, andre-determining the reference characteristic values using furtherradio-frequency signals. The further radio-frequency signals may betransmitted by one or more of the same wireless communication devicesthat transmitted the first radio-frequency signals and/or by one or moreother wireless communication devices. The stage 352 may include theprocessor 80 and/or the processor 180 re-determining the referencecharacteristic values in response to one or more stimuli such as: thepassage of a specified time interval; one or more transmitting wirelesscommunication devices moving more than a respective threshold distance;a context of the first radio-frequency signals being less than athreshold likeliness of being a previously-determined context; the testcharacteristic values being first test characteristic values and secondtest characteristic values being within a threshold similarity of thefirst test characteristics, the second test characteristic values beingbased on fourth radio-frequency signals associated with a first timethat is more than a static-profile threshold amount of time after asecond time that is associated with the second radio-frequency signals;or a combination of two or more of these.

At stage 354, the method 350 includes obtaining test characteristicvalues corresponding to second radio-frequency signals, the referencecharacteristic values and the test characteristic values correspondingto a shared set of characteristics that include at least one signalcharacteristic, or at least one signal propagation characteristic, or acombination thereof. For example, stage 354 may include the processor 80and/or the processor 180 measuring, determining, and/or receiving thetest characteristics in one or more ways of the possible ways discussedwith respect to stage 352 for obtaining the reference characteristicvalues.

At stage 356, the method 350 includes comparing the test characteristicvalues to the reference characteristic values. For example, stage 356may include the processor 80 and/or the processor 180 comparing testcharacteristic values to corresponding ones of the referencecharacteristic values, e.g., from a clustered profile or an unclusteredprofile. The stage 356 may include the processor 80 and/or the processor180 selecting reference characteristic values that are in a profilehaving a similar context as the test characteristic values and/or haveone or more other characteristic with values that are determined to besimilar to values of corresponding characteristics associated with thereference characteristics. For example, the processor 80 may select areference profile with a time of day value and an activity level valuethat are similar to values of time of day and activity level associatedwith the test characteristics.

The method 350 may further include determining a first contextcorresponding to the first radio-frequency signals and determining asecond context corresponding to the second radio-frequency signals,where comparing the test characteristic values to the referencecharacteristic values is performed in response to determining that thefirst context corresponds to the second context. For example, the method350 may include the processor 80 and/or the processor 180 analyzing thefirst radio-frequency signals and the second radio-frequency signals todetermine respective contexts. Also or alternatively, the method 350 mayinclude the processor 80 and/or the processor 180 analyzing receivedinformation indicating respective contexts for the first radio-frequencysignals and the second radio-frequency signals. As a further example,the method 350 may include the processor 80 and/or the processor 180comparing the test characteristic values to the reference characteristicvalues only if the respective contexts match (are identical), or perhapsonly if the respective contexts are sufficiently close (e.g., watchingTV during the evening and watching TV during the day). As anotherexample, determining the first context may include the processor 80and/or the processor 180 determining one or more of a time of day, a dayof the week, a location, a user activity, or presence of a user. Asanother example, the method 350 may further include the processor 80and/or the processor 180 providing an indication of the second contextto a user of a receiving wireless communication device that received thefirst radio-frequency signals and the second radio-frequency signals, ortaking a user-defined action based on the second context, or acombination of these.

Also or alternatively, the method 350 may further include sending, usinga short-range wireless communication technique, the referencecharacteristic values, the test characteristic values, or a combinationof these, directly between wireless communication devices eachconfigured to determine the reference characteristic values from thefirst radio-frequency signals. For example, the method 350 may includethe TV 48 sending the reference characteristic values and/or the testcharacteristic values to the tablet 44 using BLUETOOTH® wirelesstechnology (e.g., using the processor 80 and the transceiver 88 of eachof the TV 48 and the tablet 44). The sent values may be used, forexample, to determine and/or re-determine profiles, including clusteredprofiles.

Also or alternatively, the method 350 may further include taking anaction in response to the plurality of test characteristic valuesdiffering from the plurality of reference characteristic values by morethan a threshold amount. For example, the method 350 may include sendingalerts, sounding alarms, turning a device ON or OFF, one or more otheractions, multiple ones of these actions, or combinations of these. Themethod 350 may further include making an environment-changedetermination that the test characteristic values differ from thereference characteristic values by more than the threshold amount; andrequesting, in response to making the environment-change determination,a neighbor wireless communication device to determine confirmationcharacteristic values of the second radio-frequency signals, theneighbor wireless communication device being within communication rangeof a receiving wireless communication device that received the firstradio-frequency signals and the second radio-frequency signals. Thus,the processor 80 may request a nearby device to help confirm that adifference exists between the reference and test characteristics, e.g.,between an expected environmental state and an actual environmentalstate.

Referring to FIG. 10, with further reference to FIGS. 1-9, a method 370of analyzing characteristic values corresponding to RF signals includesthe stages shown. The method 370 is, however, an example only and notlimiting. The method 370 may be altered, e.g., by having stages added,removed, rearranged, combined, performed concurrently, and/or havingsingle stages split into multiple stages. For simplicity, the discussionbelow refers to the wireless communication device 70 and/or componentsthereof for some stages, but this discussion of these stages may beapplied to the controller 60, or a combination of the wirelesscommunication device 70 and the controller 60 or a combination ofmultiple wireless communication devices 70 and the controller 60.Similarly, the discussion below refers to the controller and/orcomponents thereof for some stages, but this discussion of these stagesmay be applied to the wireless communication device 70, or a combinationof the wireless communication device 70 and the controller 60 or acombination of multiple wireless communication devices 70 and thecontroller 60.

At stage 372, the method 370 includes receiving radio-frequency signals.For example, the method 370 includes the transceiver 88 receivingradio-frequency signals from another wireless communication device. Thesignals received may be sent by the other wireless communication devicewithout being induced by the processor 80, or may be sent in response toa communication sent by the processor 80 via the transceiver 88 (e.g.,for determining an RTT value).

At stage 374, the method 370 includes measuring/determining profilecharacteristic values. For example, the method 370 may include thesensor(s) 96 and/or the processor 80 measuring and/or determining valuessuch as RTT values, RSSI values, device IDs, RF channel characteristicvalues, latencies, etc. using the received signals. The stages 372, 374provide an example of the stage 352 shown in FIG. 9 for obtainingreference characteristic values corresponding to radio-frequency signalsand of the stage 354 shown in FIG. 9 for obtaining test characteristicvalues.

At stage 376, the method 370 includes determining whether the profilecharacteristic values from stage 374 are reference characteristic valuesor test characteristic values. For example, the processor 80 maydetermine that the profile characteristic values are referencecharacteristic values if no reference characteristic values arepresently stored having a contexts corresponding to a determined contextof the profile characteristic values from stage 374. As another example,the processor 80 may determine that the profile characteristic valuesare reference characteristic values if less than a desired amount ofprofile characteristic values have been clustered to determine apresently-stored profile of reference characteristic valuescorresponding to the determined context of the profile characteristicvalues from stage 374. As another example, the processor 80 maydetermine that the profile characteristic values are referencecharacteristic values if less than a desired amount of profilecharacteristic values have been clustered to determine apresently-stored profile of reference characteristic valuescorresponding to the determined context of the profile characteristicvalues from stage 374, and less than a reference/test threshold amountof time has passed. Further, the processor 80 may determine that theprofile characteristic values are test characteristic values ifreference characteristic values are presently stored and, if clusteringhas been used, have been determined by clustering a sufficient number ofreference characteristic values. If it is determined that the profilecharacteristic values from stage 374 are test characteristic values,then the method 370 proceeds to stage 382 discussed below. If it isdetermined that the profile characteristic values from stage 374 arereference characteristic values, then the method 370 proceeds to stage378.

At stage 378, the method 370 may include clustering of the referencecharacteristic values. For example, the method 370 may include theprocessor 80 combining (e.g., averaging) values of some of the profilecharacteristics for profiles having similar contexts and/or othersimilar characteristics (e.g., similar times of day and activity levels,or similar times of day, activity levels, and neighboring devices,etc.).

At stage 380, the method 370 includes storing profiles. For example, themethod 370 may include the processor 80 storing the values of thecharacteristics of the profiles 610 and/or the profiles 710.

At stage 382, the method 370 includes comparing reference characteristicvalues with test characteristic values. For example, the method 370 mayinclude the processor 180 of the controller 60 comparing characteristicvalues of what was determined in stage 376 to be a test profile withcharacteristic values of a corresponding reference profile stored atstage 380. The comparing performed by the controller 60 may includedetermining or selecting a reference profile with a context similar tothe context of the test profile, and comparing characteristic values ofthe selected reference profile with corresponding characteristic valuesof the test profile. The test profile and the reference profile,however, may not have all of the same characteristic values. In thiscase, the processor and 180 may compare the characteristics that areshared by the test profile and reference profile, and note anyadditional and/or missing characteristic value from the test profilecompared to the reference profile. The stage 382 is an example of thestage 356 shown in FIG. 9.

At stage 384, the method 370 includes determining whether a significantdifference exists between the test characteristic values and thereference characteristic values. For example, the method 370 may includethe processor 180 determining whether any test characteristic value liesoutside of a corresponding reference characteristic value range. Asanother example, the method 370 may include the processor 180determining whether an average difference of the test characteristicvalues relative to respective midpoints of the reference characteristicvalue ranges differs by more than a threshold amount. As anotherexample, the method 370 may include the processor 180 determiningwhether any test characteristic value exists in the test profile withouta corresponding reference characteristic value in the reference profile,or vice versa. As another example, the method 370 may include theprocessor 180 determining whether a particular combination of the testcharacteristic values have a particular combined difference relative torespective reference characteristic values (e.g., one particular testcharacteristic value being outside a corresponding referencecharacteristic value range, and another one of the test characteristicvalues differing from an average corresponding reference characteristicvalue range by more than a threshold amount, or an average differencebeing above a threshold). These are only examples, and not limiting, ofthe possible techniques for determining a significant difference betweena test profile and a corresponding reference profile. If it isdetermined that a significant difference between the test profile andthe reference profile is not present (i.e., that the test profile andthe reference profile are not significantly different), then the method370 proceeds to stage 387 or to stage 388, discussed below. If it isdetermined that a significant difference between the test profile andreference profile is present (i.e., that the test profile and thereference profile are significantly different), then the method 370proceeds to stage 386.

At stage 386, the method 370 includes taking action. For example, themethod 370 may include the processor 180 taking an appropriate action inresponse to the determination of a significant difference between thetest profile and the reference profile existing. As examples, theprocessor 180 may provide an alert to a user, sound an alarm, change astate of the device (e.g., from ON to OFF or vice versa), etc. Theaction taken by the processor 180 may be user dependent. For example, auser may have provided, and the processor 180 stored in the memory 182,input as to particular actions to be taken for responding to particulardifferences between test and reference profiles, and the processor 180may take an indicated action in response to a corresponding particulardifference being determined at stage 384. As another example, theprocessor 180 may ask, via the user interface 186, a user what action isto be taken in response to the difference determined at stage 384, andtake the action indicated by the user. Also or alternatively, the actiontaken may depend on which characteristic(s) differed significantlyand/or by how much. For example, what alarm is triggered and/or whatinformation is provided and/or to whom may depend on what difference(s)triggered the action (e.g., texting a user with a notice that a burglarymay be in progress if a television is moving). Also or alternatively,the action taken may depend on the context, e.g., notifying a user ifthe context has the user present or notifying an emergency service ifthe user is not present.

At optional stage 387, the method 370 includes taking action. Here, themethod 370 may include the processor 180 taking an appropriate action inresponse to the determination that the test profile and the referenceprofile are not significantly different. For example, the controller 60may take an action, such as turning on a light, triggering cooling of aroom, triggering heating of a room, etc. if the test profile is within athreshold similarity of one of the stored profiles 710. The method 370proceeds from stage 387 to stage 388. Alternatively, stage 387 isoptional, and may be omitted from the method 370 such that the method370 proceeds directly from stage 384 to stage 388 if there is nosignificant difference between the test profile and the referenceprofile.

At stage 388, the method 370 includes determining whether to re-trainthe reference characteristic values. For example, the stage 388 mayinclude the processor 180 determining whether the referencecharacteristic values used in the comparison with the testcharacteristic values are to be re-learned. For example, the stage 388may include the processor 180 determining that periodic re-learning ofthe reference characteristic values is in order due to the passage of athreshold amount of time. As another example, the stage 388 may includethe processor 180 making a determination that a device within the system10 has moved, and trigger the re-learning of the referencecharacteristic values in response to this determination. As anotherexample, the stage 388 may include the processor 180 determining that aprofile change has become static. As another example, the stage 388 mayinclude the processor 180 determining that a context of the presentcharacteristic values is lower than a threshold likelihood of being anyof the contexts of saved profiles. As another example, the stage 388 mayinclude the processor 180 inquiring of a user whether to re-learn thereference characteristic values. If it is determined at stage 388 not tore-train the reference characteristic values, then the method 370returns to stage 372. If it is determined at stage 388 to re-train thereference surface of values, then the method 370 proceeds to stage 390.

At stage 390, the method 370 includes initiating retraining of thereference characteristic values. For example, the method 370 may includethe processor 180 deleting the stored reference characteristic valuesfrom the memory 182. As another example, the method 370 may include theprocessor 180 setting a flag to use the next N (where N≥1) sets ofreceived radio-frequency signals to update the stored referencecharacteristic values. For example, the reference characteristic valuesmay be updated by combining the new sets of profile characteristicvalues determined from these radio-frequency signals with the existingreference characteristic values. As another example, the referencecharacteristic values may be updated by, for each new set ofcharacteristic values, removing the oldest set of characteristic valuesused to determine the reference characteristic values, and thencombining the new set of characteristic values with the remaining set(s)of characteristic values.

Referring to FIG. 11, with further reference to FIGS. 1-8, a method 410of using one or more radio-frequency signals includes the stages shown.The method 410 is, however, an example only and not limiting. The method450 may be altered, e.g., by having stages added, removed, rearranged,combined, performed concurrently, and/or having single stages split intomultiple stages.

At stage 412, the method 410 includes monitoring, with at least oneradio-frequency (RF) receiver, one or more RF characteristics of one ormore wireless RF signals from one or more RF devices in an environment.For example, stage 412 may include monitoring means monitoring one ormore RF characteristics of one or more wireless RF signals from one ormore RF devices in an environment. This may involve, for example, theprocessor 80 measuring (using the one or more of the sensor(s) 96) oneor more RF signals and/or receiving one or more indications of one ormore RF characteristics of one or more RF signals, and/or the centralcontroller 60 and/or the server 30 receiving one or more indications ofone or more RF characteristics of one or more RF signals. An indicationmay be of an RF characteristic itself or information from which the RFcharacteristic may be derived/determined.

At stage 414, the method 410 includes comparing the one or more RFcharacteristics to a reference RF profile for the environment. Forexample, stage 414 may include means for comparing, such as theprocessor 80 and/or the processor 180 (and/or the server 30 or otherdevice), comparing the one or more RF characteristics to a reference RFprofile, e.g., that the processor 80 retrieves from the memory 82 orthat the processor 180 retrieves from the memory 182. The comparing mayyield one or more differences between the one or more RF characteristicsand the reference RF profile, e.g., an average variation (e.g.,percentage) between each RF characteristic and each corresponding valuein the reference RF profile, one or more indications of whether one ormore RF characteristic values exceeded one or more correspondingthresholds, combinations of these, etc.

At stage 416, the method 410 includes initiating an action based on adifference between the one or more RF characteristics and the referenceRF profile determined by the comparing. For example, stage 416 mayinclude means for initiating, such as the processor 80 and/or theprocessor 180, sending alerts, sounding alarms, turning a device ON orOFF, one or more other actions, multiple ones of these actions, orcombinations of these. Initiating the action may occur in response tothe difference determined by the comparing being more than a thresholdamount. The action initiated may include requesting a neighbor wirelesscommunication device to determine a confirmation RF profile of one ormore of the one or more RF characteristics of one or more of the one ormore RF devices, the neighbor wireless communication device being withincommunication range of the at least one RF receiver. For example, theprocessor 80 may send a request via the transceiver 88 to a neighborwireless communication device for confirmation of one or more RFcharacteristics, e.g., if one or more RF characteristics are differentby more than one or more thresholds from corresponding values in thereference RF profile.

The method 410 may also, or alternatively, include one or more of thefollowing features. The method 410 may include determining that acontext of the one or more RF characteristics corresponds to a contextof the reference RF profile, wherein comparing the one or more RFcharacteristics to the reference RF profile is performed in response todetermining that the context of the one or more RF characteristicscorresponds to the context of the reference RF profile. Determining thecontext of the one or more RF characteristics comprises determining oneor more of a time of day, a day of the week, a location, a useractivity, or presence of a user. Also or alternatively, the method 410may include providing an indication of the context of the reference RFprofile to a user of a receiving wireless communication device thatincludes the at least one RF receiver, or taking a user-defined actionbased on the context of the reference RF profile, or a combination ofthese. The one or more RF characteristics and the reference RF profilehave a shared RF characteristic set that includes at least one signalcharacteristic, or at least one signal propagation characteristic, or acombination thereof.

Referring to FIG. 12, with further reference to FIGS. 1-8, a method 430of generating a radio-frequency signal profile includes the stagesshown. The method 430 is, however, an example only and not limiting. Themethod 450 may be altered, e.g., by having stages added, removed,rearranged, combined, performed concurrently, and/or having singlestages split into multiple stages.

At stage 432, the method 410 includes receiving indications ofmeasurements of one or more values of one or more radio-frequency (RF)characteristics of one or more wireless RF signals from one or more RFdevices in an environment. For example, stage 432 may include receivingmeans receiving the indications, which may involve, for example, theprocessor 80 measuring (using the one or more of the sensor(s) 96) oneor more RF signals and/or receiving one or more indications of one ormore RF characteristics of one or more RF signals, and/or the centralcontroller 60 and/or the server 30 receiving one or more indications ofone or more RF characteristics of one or more RF signals. An indicationmay be of an RF characteristic itself or information from which the RFcharacteristic may be derived/determined. Further, receiving theindications of measurements may include taking the measurements with atleast one radio-frequency (RF) receiver.

At stage 434, the method 410 includes determining contexts from valuesof one or more context characteristics associated with the measurements.For example, stage 434 may include means for determining, such as theprocessor 80 and/or the processor 180 (and/or the server 30 or otherdevice), determining common contexts for groups of measurements, witheach of the contexts perhaps being one or more values indicative of atime of day, a day of the week, a location, a user activity, presence ofa user, user vacation status, etc.

At stage 436, the method 430 includes generating a reference RF profileby combining sets of the one or more values of the one or more RFcharacteristics associated with similar contexts. For example, stage 436may include means for generating, such as the processor 80 and/or theprocessor 180, and grouping RF characteristic values by context andstoring the grouped RF characteristic values in association with anindication of the corresponding context.

The method 430 may also, or alternatively, include one or more of thefollowing features. The method 430 may include maintaining the referenceRF profile by updating the reference RF profile using one or morepresent values of the one or more RF characteristics. Updating thereference RF profile may be performed in response to: the one or more ofthe present values of the one or more RF characteristics differing fromthe reference RF profile by more than a threshold for more than aspecified time; at least one of the RF devices moving more than arespective threshold distance; a present context corresponding topresent values of the context characteristics being less than athreshold likeliness of being a previously-determined context; or apresent RF profile, corresponding to the one or more present values ofthe RF characteristics, differing by more than a first threshold amountfrom the reference RF profile and less than a second threshold amountfrom a previously-determined present RF profile that also differed fromthe reference RF profile by more than the first threshold amount; or acombination of two or more of these. One or more of the present valuesof the one or more RF characteristics differing from the reference RFprofile by more than a threshold for more than a specified time mayinvolve different measurements of one characteristic differing by morethan the threshold or different measurements each exceeding a respectivethreshold, or a combination of measurements exceeding a combinationthreshold, for at least the time period.

Also or alternatively, the method 430 may include sending, using ashort-range wireless communication technique, the one or more values ofthe one or more RF characteristics, one or more values of one or more RFcharacteristics of the reference RF profile, or a combination of these,directly between wireless communication devices each configured todetermine the one or more values of the one or more RF characteristics.Thus, wireless communication devices may share information in order todetermine one or more RF characteristics for the reference RF profile.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Other examples and implementations are within the scope and spirit ofthe disclosure and appended claims. For example, due to the nature ofsoftware and computers, functions described above can be implementedusing software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwiring,or a combination of any of these. Features implementing functions mayalso be physically located at various positions, including beingdistributed such that portions of functions are implemented at differentphysical locations.

As used herein, an indication that a device is configured to perform astated function means that the device contains appropriate equipment(e.g., circuitry, mechanical device(s), hardware, software (e.g.,processor-readable instructions), firmware, etc.) to perform the statedfunction. That is, the device contains equipment that is capable ofperforming the stated function, e.g., with the device itself having beendesigned and made to perform the function, or having been manufacturedsuch that the device includes equipment that was designed and made toperform the function. An indication that processor-readable instructionsare configured to cause a processor to perform functions means that theprocessor-readable instructions contain instructions that when executedby a processor (after compiling as appropriate) will result in thefunctions being performed.

Also, as used herein, “or” as used in a list of items prefaced by “atleast one of” or prefaced by “one or more of” indicates a disjunctivelist such that, for example, a list of “at least one of A, B, or C,” ora list of “one or more of A, B, or C” means A or B or C or AB or AC orBC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C), or combinations with more than onefeature (e.g., AA, AAB, ABBC, etc.).

As used herein, unless otherwise stated, a statement that a function oroperation is “based on” an item or condition means that the function oroperation is based on the stated item or condition and may be based onone or more items and/or conditions in addition to the stated item orcondition.

Further, an indication that information is sent or transmitted, or astatement of sending or transmitting information, “to” an entity doesnot require completion of the communication. Such indications orstatements include situations where the information is conveyed from asending entity but does not reach an intended recipient of theinformation. The intended recipient, even if not actually receiving theinformation, may still be referred to as a receiving entity, e.g., areceiving execution environment. Further, an entity that is configuredto send or transmit information “to” an intended recipient is notrequired to be configured to complete the delivery of the information tothe intended recipient. For example, the entity may provide theinformation, with an indication of the intended recipient, to anotherentity that is capable of forwarding the information along with anindication of the intended recipient.

A wireless communication system is one in which communications areconveyed wirelessly, i.e., by electromagnetic and/or acoustic wavespropagating through atmospheric space rather than through a wire orother physical connection. A wireless communication network may not haveall communications transmitted wirelessly, but is configured to have atleast some communications transmitted wirelessly. Further, a wirelesscommunication device may communicate through one or more wiredconnections as well as through one or more wireless connections.

Substantial variations may be made in accordance with specificrequirements. For example, customized hardware might also be used,and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software(including portable software, such as applets, etc.), or both. Further,connection to other computing devices such as network input/outputdevices may be employed.

The terms “machine-readable medium” and “computer-readable medium,” asused herein, refer to any medium that participates in providing datathat causes a machine to operate in a specific fashion. Using a computersystem, various computer-readable media might be involved in providinginstructions/code to processor(s) for execution and/or might be used tostore and/or carry such instructions/code (e.g., as signals). In manyimplementations, a computer-readable medium is a physical and/ortangible storage medium. Such a medium may take many forms, includingbut not limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatilemedia include, for example, optical and/or magnetic disks. Volatilemedia include, without limitation, dynamic memory.

Common forms of physical and/or tangible computer-readable mediainclude, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk,magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, any other opticalmedium, punchcards, papertape, any other physical medium with patternsof holes, a RAM, a PROM, EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip orcartridge, or any other non-transitory medium from which a computer canread instructions and/or code.

Various forms of computer-readable media may be involved in carrying oneor more sequences of one or more instructions to one or more processorsfor execution. Merely by way of example, the instructions may initiallybe carried on a magnetic disk and/or optical disc of a remote computer.A remote computer might load the instructions into its dynamic memoryand send the instructions as signals over a transmission medium to bereceived and/or executed by a computer system.

The methods, systems, and devices discussed above are examples. Variousconfigurations may omit, substitute, or add various procedures orcomponents as appropriate. For instance, in alternative configurations,the methods may be performed in an order different from that described,and that various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. Also,features described with respect to certain configurations may becombined in various other configurations. Different aspects and elementsof the configurations may be combined in a similar manner. Also,technology evolves and, thus, many of the elements are examples and donot limit the scope of the disclosure or claims.

Specific details are given in the description to provide a thoroughunderstanding of example configurations (including implementations).However, configurations may be practiced without these specific details.For example, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, andtechniques have been shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoidobscuring the configurations. This description provides exampleconfigurations only, and does not limit the scope, applicability, orconfigurations of the claims. Rather, the preceding description of theconfigurations provides a description for implementing describedtechniques. Various changes may be made in the function and arrangementof elements without departing from the spirit or scope of thedisclosure.

Also, configurations may be described as a process which is depicted asa flow diagram or block diagram. Although each may describe theoperations as a sequential process, many of the operations can beperformed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of theoperations may be rearranged. A process may have additional stages orfunctions not included in the figure. Furthermore, examples of themethods may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware,microcode, hardware description languages, or any combination thereof.When implemented in software, firmware, middleware, or microcode, theprogram code or code segments to perform the tasks may be stored in anon-transitory computer-readable medium such as a storage medium.Processors may perform the described tasks.

Components, functional or otherwise, shown in the figures and/ordiscussed herein as being connected or communicating with each other arecommunicatively coupled. That is, they may be directly or indirectlyconnected to enable communication between them.

Having described several example configurations, various modifications,alternative constructions, and equivalents may be used without departingfrom the spirit of the disclosure. For example, the above elements maybe components of a larger system, wherein other rules may takeprecedence over or otherwise modify the application of the invention.Also, a number of operations may be undertaken before, during, or afterthe above elements are considered. Accordingly, the above descriptiondoes not bound the scope of the claims.

Further, more than one invention may be disclosed.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of using one or moreradio-frequency signals, the method comprising: obtaining, with at leastone radio-frequency (RF) receiver, one or more measurements of one ormore RF characteristics of one or more wireless RF signals from one ormore RF devices in an environment; determining, based on one or morecontext characteristics including at least one context characteristicother than location, that a first context of the one or moremeasurements corresponds to a second context of a reference RF profile;in response to the determining, comparing the one or more measurementscharacteristics to one or more corresponding reference values in thereference RF profile; and initiating an action based on a differencebetween the one or more measurements and the one or more correspondingreference values in the reference RF profile determined by thecomparing.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first context of theone or more measurements comprises one or more of a time of day, a dayof the week, a location, a user activity, or presence of a user.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: providing an indication of thesecond context of the reference RF profile to a user of a receivingwireless communication device that includes the at least one RFreceiver; or taking a user-defined action based on the context of thereference RF profile; or a combination of these.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein the one or more measurements and the reference RF profilehave a shared RF measurement characteristic set that includes at leastone signal measurement, or at least one signal propagation measurement,or a combination thereof.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein initiatingthe action occurs in response to the difference determined by thecomparing being more than a threshold amount.
 6. The method of claim 5,wherein the action includes requesting a neighbor wireless communicationdevice to determine a confirmation RF profile of one or more of the oneor more measurements of one or more of the one or more RF devices, theneighbor wireless communication device being within communication rangeof the at least one RF receiver.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising maintaining the reference RF profile by updating thereference RF profile using one or more values of the one or moremeasurements.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or moremeasurements include a round-trip time, or a received signal strength,or channel characteristics, or a latency, or a combination thereof.
 9. Awireless mobile communication device comprising: a memory; atransceiver; and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory andto the transceiver and configured to: obtain, via at least oneradio-frequency (RF) receiver of the transceiver, one or moremeasurements of one or more RF characteristics of one or more wirelessRF signals from one or more RF devices in an environment; determine,based on one or more context characteristics including at least onecontext characteristic other than location, whether a first context ofthe one or more measurements corresponds to a second context of areference RF profile; compare, in response to the first context of theone or more measurements corresponding to the second context of thereference profile, the one or more measurements to one or morecorresponding reference values in the reference RF profile; and initiatean action based on a difference between the one or more measurements andthe one or more corresponding reference values in the reference RFprofile.
 10. The device of claim 9, wherein the first context of the oneor more measurements comprises one or more of a time of day, a day ofthe week, a location, a user activity, or presence of a user.
 11. Thedevice of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to:provide an indication of the second context of the reference RF profileto a user of the wireless mobile communication device; or take auser-defined action based on the context of the reference RF profile; ora combination of these.
 12. The device of claim 9, wherein the processoris configured to select the reference RF profile for comparison to theone or more measurements such that the one or more measurements and thereference RF profile have a shared measurement set that includes atleast one signal measurement, or at least one signal propagationmeasurement, or a combination thereof.
 13. The device of claim 9,wherein the processor is configured to initiate the action in responseto the difference between the one or more measurements and the referenceRF profile being more than a threshold amount.
 14. The device of claim13, wherein the action includes requesting a neighbor wirelesscommunication device to determine a confirmation RF profile of one ormore of the one or more measurements of one or more of the one or moreRF devices.
 15. The device of claim 9, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to maintain the reference RF profile by updating thereference RF profile using one or more values of the one or moremeasurements.
 16. The device of claim 9, wherein the one or moremeasurements include a round-trip time, or a received signal strength,or channel characteristics, or a latency, or a combination thereof. 17.A wireless mobile communication device comprising: means for obtainingone or more radio-frequency (RF) measurements or one or more RFcharacteristics of one or more wireless RF signals from one or more RFdevices in an environment; means for determining, based on one or morecontext characteristics including at least one context characteristicother than location, whether a first context of the one or moremeasurements corresponds to a second context of a reference RF profile;means for comparing, in response to the first context of the one or moremeasurements corresponding to the second context of the referenceprofile, the one or more measurements to one or more correspondingreference values in the reference RF profile; and means for initiatingan action based on a difference between the one or more measurements andthe one or more corresponding reference values in the reference RFprofile determined by the means for comparing.
 18. The device of claim17, wherein the first context of the one or more measurements comprisesone or more of a time of day, a day of the week, a location, a useractivity, or presence of a user.
 19. The device of claim 17, furthercomprising: means for providing an indication of the second context ofthe reference RF profile to a user of the wireless mobile communicationdevice; or means for taking a user-defined action based on the contextof the reference RF profile; or a combination of these.
 20. The deviceof claim 17, further comprising means for selecting the reference RFprofile for comparison to the one or more measurements such that the oneor more measurements and the reference RF profile have a shared RFmeasurement set that includes at least one signal measurement, or atleast one signal propagation measurement, or a combination thereof. 21.The device of claim 17, wherein the means for initiating are configuredto initiate the action in response to the difference between the one ormore measurements and the RF profile being more than a threshold amount.22. The device of claim 21, wherein the means for initiating the actionare configured to request a neighbor wireless communication device todetermine a confirmation RF profile of one or more of the one or moremeasurements one or more of the one or more RF devices.
 23. The deviceof claim 17, further comprising means for maintaining the reference RFprofile by updating the reference RF profile using one or more values ofthe one or more measurements.
 24. The device of claim 17, wherein theone or more measurements include a round-trip time, or a received signalstrength, or channel characteristics, or a latency, or a combinationthereof.
 25. A non-transitory, processor-readable storage mediumcomprising instructions configured to cause a processor to: obtain, viaat least one radio-frequency (RF) receiver, one or more measurements ofone or more RF characteristics of one or more wireless RF signals fromone or more RF devices in an environment; determine, based on one ormore context characteristics including at least one contextcharacteristic other than location, whether a first context of the oneor more measurements corresponds to a second context of a reference RFprofile; compare, in response to the first context of the one or moremeasurements corresponding to the second context of the referenceprofile, the one or more measurements to one or more correspondingreference values in the reference RF profile; and initiate an actionbased on a difference between the one or more measurements and the oneor more corresponding reference values in the reference RF profile. 26.The storage medium of claim 25, wherein the first context of the one ormore measurements comprises one or more of a time of day, a day of theweek, a location, a user activity, or presence of a user.
 27. Thestorage medium of claim 25, further comprising instructions configuredto cause the processor to: provide an indication of the second contextof the reference RF profile to a user of the wireless mobilecommunication device; or take a user-defined action based on the contextof the reference RF profile; or a combination of these.
 28. The storagemedium of claim 25, further comprising instructions configured to causethe processor to select the reference RF profile for comparison to theone or more measurements such that the one or more measurements and thereference RF profile have a shared RF measurement set that includes atleast one signal measurement, or at least one signal propagationmeasurement, or a combination thereof.
 29. The storage medium of claim25, wherein the instructions configured to cause the processor toinitiate the action are configured to cause the processor to initiatethe action in response to the difference between the one or moremeasurements and the reference RF profile being more than a thresholdamount.
 30. The storage medium of claim 29, wherein the action includesrequesting a neighbor wireless communication device to determine aconfirmation RF profile of one or more of the one or more measurementsof one or more of the one or more RF devices.
 31. The storage medium ofclaim 25, further comprising instructions configured to cause theprocessor to maintain the reference RF profile by updating the referenceRF profile using one or more values of the one or more measurements. 32.The storage medium of claim 25, wherein the one or more measurementsinclude a round-trip time, or a received signal strength, or channelcharacteristics, or a latency, or a combination thereof.
 33. A method ofgenerating a radio-frequency signal profile, the method comprising:receiving indications of two or more measured values of two or moreradio-frequency (RF) characteristics of one or more wireless RF signalsfrom one or more RF devices in an environment; determining contexts fromvalues of one or more context characteristics associated with themeasured values, the one or more context characteristics including atleast one context characteristic other than location; and generating areference RF profile comprising at least two profile values each beingone of the two or more measured values of the one or more RF signals andeach being associated with a similar one of the contexts.
 34. The methodof claim 33, further comprising maintaining the reference RF profile byupdating the reference RF profile using one or more present values ofthe two or more measured values.
 35. The method of claim 34, wherein theupdating the reference RF profile is performed in response to: the oneor more present values of the two or more measured values differing fromthe reference RF profile by more than a threshold for more than aspecified time; at least one of the RF devices moving more than arespective threshold distance; a present context corresponding topresent values of the context characteristics being less than athreshold likeliness of being a previously-determined context; or apresent RF profile, corresponding to the one or more present values ofthe two or more measured values, differing by more than a firstthreshold amount from the reference RF profile and less than a secondthreshold amount from a previously-determined present RF profile thatalso differed from the reference RF profile by more than the firstthreshold amount; or a combination of two or more of these.
 36. Themethod of claim 33, wherein the context characteristics comprise one ormore of a time of day, a day of the week, a location, a user activity,or presence of a user.
 37. The method of claim 33, further comprisingsending, using a short-range wireless communication technique, the twoor more measured values, one or more of the profile values, or acombination of these, directly between wireless communication deviceseach configured to determine the two or more measured values.
 38. Themethod of claim 33, wherein receiving the indications of the two or moremeasured values comprises measuring the one or more wireless RF signalswith at least one radio-frequency (RF) receiver.
 39. The method of claim33, further comprising storing the reference RF profile in a memory withthe at least two profile values associated with each other and with thesimilar one of the contexts.
 40. A device comprising: a memory; aprocessor, communicatively coupled to the memory, configured to: receiveindications of two or more measured values of two or more wirelessradio-frequency (RF) characteristics of one or more wireless RF signalsfrom one or more RF devices in an environment; determine contexts fromvalues of one or more context characteristics associated with themeasured values, the one or more context characteristics including atleast one context characteristic other than location; and generate areference RF profile comprising at least two profile values each beingone of the two or more measured values of the one or more RF signals andeach being associated with a similar one of the contexts.
 41. The deviceof claim 40, wherein the processor is further configured to maintain thereference RF profile by updating the reference RF profile using one ormore new values of the two or more measured values.
 42. The device ofclaim 41, wherein the processor is configured to update the reference RFprofile in response to: the one or more new values of the two or moremeasured values differing from the reference RF profile by more than athreshold for more than a specified time; at least one of the RF devicesmoving more than a respective threshold distance; a new contextcorresponding to new values of the context characteristics being lessthan a threshold likeliness of being a previously-determined context; ora new RF profile, corresponding to the one or more new values of the twoor more measured values, differing by more than a first threshold amountfrom the reference RF profile and less than a second threshold amountfrom a previously-determined present RF profile that also differed fromthe reference RF profile by more than the first threshold amount; or acombination of two or more of these.
 43. The device of claim 40, whereinthe context characteristics comprise one or more of a time of day, a dayof the week, a location, a user activity, or presence of a user.
 44. Thedevice of claim 40, further comprising a transmitter communicativelycoupled to the processor, wherein the processor is further configured tosend, via the transmitter using a short-range wireless communicationtechnique, the two or more measured values, one or more of the profilevalues, or a combination of these, directly to a wireless communicationdevice.
 45. The device of claim 40, further comprising at least one RFreceiver communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the processoris configured to receive the indications of the two or more measuredvalues via the at least one RF receiver.
 46. A device comprising: meansfor receiving indications of two or more measured values of two or moreradio-frequency (RF) characteristics of one or more wireless RF signalsfrom one or more RF devices in an environment; means for determiningcontexts from values of one or more context characteristics associatedwith the measured values, the one or more context characteristicsincluding at least one context characteristic other than location; andmeans for generating a reference RF profile comprising at least twoprofile values each being one of the two or more measured values of theone or more RF signals and each being associated with a similar one ofthe contexts.
 47. The device of claim 46, further comprising means formaintaining the reference RF profile by updating the reference RFprofile using one or more present values of the two or more measuredvalues.
 48. The device of claim 47, wherein the means for updating thereference RF profile are configured to update the reference RF profilein response to: the one or more present values of the two or moremeasured values differing from the reference RF profile by more than athreshold for more than a specified time; at least one of the RF devicesmoving more than a respective threshold distance; a present contextcorresponding to present values of the context characteristics beingless than a threshold likeliness of being a previously-determinedcontext; or a present RF profile, corresponding to the one or morepresent values of the two or more measured values, differing by morethan a first threshold amount from the reference RF profile and lessthan a second threshold amount from a previously-determined present RFprofile that also differed from the reference RF profile by more thanthe first threshold amount; or a combination of two or more of these.49. The device of claim 46, wherein the context characteristics compriseone or more of a time of day, a day of the week, a location, a useractivity, or presence of a user.
 50. The device of claim 46, furthercomprising means for sending, using a short-range wireless communicationtechnique, the two or more measured values, one or more of the profilevalues, or a combination of these, directly to a wireless communicationdevice.
 51. The device of claim 46, wherein the means for receiving theindications of the two or more measured values comprise means formeasuring the one or more wireless RF signals with at least oneradio-frequency (RF) receiver.
 52. A non-transitory, processor-readablestorage medium comprising instructions configured to cause a processorto: receive indications of two or more measured values of two or moreradio-frequency (RF) characteristics of one or more wireless RF signalsfrom one or more RF devices in an environment; determine contexts fromvalues of one or more context characteristics associated with themeasured values, the one or more context characteristics including atleast one context characteristic other than location; and generate areference RF profile comprising at least two profile values each beingone of the two or more measured values of the one or more RF signals andeach being associated with a similar one of the contexts.
 53. Thestorage medium of claim 52, further comprising instructions configuredto cause the processor to maintain the reference RF profile by updatingthe reference RF profile using one or more new values of the two or moremeasured values.
 54. The storage medium of claim 53, wherein theinstructions configured to cause the processor to update the referenceRF profile are configured to cause the processor to update the referenceRF profile in response to: the one or more new values of the two or moremeasured values differing from the reference RF profile by more than athreshold for more than a specified time; at least one of the RF devicesmoving more than a respective threshold distance; a new contextcorresponding to new values of the context characteristics being lessthan a threshold likeliness of being a previously-determined context; ora new RF profile, corresponding to the one or more new values of the twoor more measured values, differing by more than a first threshold amountfrom the reference RF profile and less than a second threshold amountfrom a previously-determined present RF profile that also differed fromthe reference RF profile by more than the first threshold amount; or acombination of two or more of these.
 55. The storage medium of claim 52,wherein the context characteristics comprise one or more of a time ofday, a day of the week, a location, a user activity, or presence of auser.
 56. The storage medium of claim 52, further comprisinginstructions configured to cause the processor to send, via atransmitter using a short-range wireless communication technique, thetwo or more measured values, one or more of the profile values, or acombination of these, directly to a wireless communication device. 57.The storage medium of claim 52, wherein the instructions configured tocause the processor to receive the indications of the two or moremeasured values are configured to cause the processor to receive theindications of the two or more measured values via at least one RFreceiver.